You Can Run, But You Can't Hide
by Yumizuki
Summary: She could run, but she couldn't hide. Kagome escapes from her abusive father, Naraku. With some help, she manages to get to Shikon Boarding School, but the trouble she ran away from haunts her there again. InuKag, MirSan, AyaKog, RinSessh. [COMPLETE]
1. Sneaking Away

**Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. I will say this for the ENTIRE story, so I don't have to write this over and over again.**

**Chapter 1: Sneaking Away**

"_**Stars move slowly in the silvery night, far away on the other side…"**__**–Moonlight Shadow**_

No one had ever experienced the same kind of pain that fifteen-year-old Kagome Higurashi went through. It wasn't the type of pain that one could easily run away from—mentally, and physically. But today, on July 11th, at 2:00 A.M. in the morning, Kagome would be free from it…

She had prepared all her things to take with her, The Photograph, The Necklace, The Backpack, and creeped down the hallway of the second floor to the stairs. She tilted her head back down the hall to make sure no one was awake. Sensing no movement or consciousness, she tip-toed down the stairs, and CREAK! Kagome flung her hand over her mouth, heart-pounding. She always forgot that the last stair creaked…a big problem for her in the past.

But no one came to drag her back to her room, nor did anyone yell at her to come back. Kagome breathed a huge sigh of relief. She opened the door carefully, and was so glad that she remembered to oil the hinges, just as Eri told her. Then, she stepped out, and breathed in the sweet, rural air of Osaka. The friendly stars twinkled overhead, as if congratulating her escape. Once she left the driveway of her country home, she would finally be away from it all…away from the pain that had held her in.

* * *

**Flashback: One week ago, July 4, Kagome's 15****th**** birthday**

_Whip! Whip! Punch!_ Kagome fell to the floor, holding her bleeding, bruised face.

"How dare you spoil my food!" Naraku, Kagome's step-father, screamed, while holding up a slightly worn out belt—a belt that was worn-out on her…"I told you not to put shrimp in my sushi, and yet you did! Are you trying to poison me, wench? Sota, your own seven-year-old brother can do better! Just because it's your birthday doesn't mean I've got to treat you nice!"

Kagome could do nothing, but stand the beating. It was an honest mistake, to have put the shrimp in the sushi. It looked just like the imitation crab meat in the fridge. But…it wasn't her fault that Naraku didn't like girls, it wasn't her fault that she wasn't a boy, it wasn't her fault that she and Sota Higurashi, her little brother, were orphans, and it definitely wasn't her fault that Naraku abused her for the littlest things ever. Sota's sweet, yet frightened voice interrupted her thoughts, "But daddy (Kagome hated that title for Naraku), I can't prepare food."

"Ummm…it's O.K. Sota. Go up to bed. I'll tuck you in," Naraku said. "As for you, girl," he snarled, as he turned to Kagome. "Stay in your room for two days. No food, just water. I guess I can trust you enough to only use the bathroom when you come out of your room."

Kagome trudged upstairs to her room, shut the door, and flopped onto her bed. She reached under the bed, and pulled out a loose floorboard, where hoards of non-perishable food and water were. She had created this secret spot when Naraku first became her step-father, and began starving her. The food came from stealthy pilfering. Kagome did not want Naraku to hear crunching of food, so she took a long swig of bottled Dasani water. The swishing of the liquid in her empty stomach made her very uncomfortable, but it was better than nothing.

She put the floorboard back where it was, and pulled out another loose floorboard. This was the spot where her two secret treasures were placed. It was these secret items that still kept her motivated to live. Kagome carefully pulled out a beautifully printed copy of a picture of four smiling people, and a necklace with a round, pink jewel at the end.

She placed the bottle of water her dresser top, and closed her eyes, remembering those four people. She remembered the scene well, which took place five years ago on New Year's Day. Her mother had Kagome, then 10, in her lap, and Kagome's father, with 2 year old Souta in his lap. Kagome and her mother were wearing matching traditional kimonos, but Mr. Higurashi and Souta wore tuxedos. They were all sitting on a park bench, and their neighbor had taken the picture, and printed out a copy for Kagome's family.

Kagome could not remember a happier day of her life. She remembered their family going to the local WacDonalds to eat because all the traditional Sushi bars were filled. She remembered Souta getting ice cream all over his face and suit. She remembered falling down, crying, and then her father and mother picking her up...Father…Mother…

Right when she thought of her mother and father, a stream of memories came flowing in without stopping. Naraku coming into the family, her father's death…too gruesome to think about now, her mother's death, her Jewel…Hot tears poured down her cheeks as she thought, "Mother, Father…you could've helped me get out of this place if you hadn't died." Then, Kagome dozed off.

**

* * *

**

**Kagome's dream**

"_Give me it, you foolish girl, before you end up like your father!" the dark figure yelled, a huge samurai sword in his hand. _

"_I-I don't know what you want!" Kagome stuttered, fearfully looking at the samurai sword. She did not want to die…not like her father…_

"_Yes you do!" the figure screamed. Then, the face of the person came to light, and Kagome saw that it was Naraku. As Naraku lunged toward her heart, Kagome gasped…_

* * *

Suddenly, somebody tapped her on the back, and she woke up, shuddering. She turned around to find Souta behind. "Souta!" she whispered. "Naraku will kill you if he finds out what you're doing! How'd you get in here?"

"Shhh. Daddy left the keys in his room. Daddy wants to kill _you_. I heard him say so on the phone. He was talking to someone, and he said he wants to kill you for something that he says you have. I didn't hear all that he said, 'cause I got scared." Sota explained.

"Oh, God…" Kagome whispered. Now she knew that she HAD to leave. First that dream, and now this…

The next day, while Naraku was eating breakfast, Kagome pulled out a cell phone, and speed-dialed her friend, Eri.

Eri knew everything that happened in Kagome's life. They've been friends since pre-school, and Eri was literally Kagome's diary. Eri was also a VERY wealthy child, but not spoiled at all. Although her parents did not know Kagome's abusement very well, but only as "a child in need", they provided Kagome with a cell phone in case she needed to reach Eri (not to mention that the cell phones were always the latest trend in the market, complete with text messaging and email). And it was very lucky that they did so too—Naraku had cut off all emergency hotlines, and put a recorder on all calls.

"Eri, I REALLY need help. I'm being abused again, I had a dream that Naraku wants to kill me, and now Sota tells me that Naraku really wants to kill me."

There was a pause on the other end, and Eri replied, "Hmm…I've got a plan. But it'll involve two other people. Do you know Ayumi Oasaki and Yuka Pyon?"

"Umm…isn't Ayumi the smartest girl in our grade, and Yuka's the most creative person?"

"Right. On July 10th, throw me a rope out your window at 7:00 P.M sharp. I will have all the materials you need ready. Naraku will be out at the moment you sneak out because I'll make sure he is with a car-jacking. Oh, and that's Ayumi's specialty. At 2:00 A.M, leave the house for Tokyo. You'll be going to the Shikon Boarding School…"

Then, Eri hung up, leaving Kagome very confused. Was Eri crazy? Ayumi? Carjacking? And what did Yuka have to do with this? Shikon Boarding School…?

Ayumi Oasaki was the smartest girl in Kagome and Eri's school, Tomodachi High. Not only was she smart, she was a good student as well. She received the best grades, and was a very talented violinist. Yuka Pyon knew everything about creativity there was to know. She was very good at solving problems and created art pieces that were unimaginable by the average human being.

Kagome did not know whether the carjacking part about Ayumi was true, but if it was…Naraku had better watch out. A smart person and plus carjacking didn't sound so good…especially if Naraku's car was a Rolls Royce, and carjacking happened to be that smart person's hobby…

On July 10th, the entire population within five miles of Kagome's house could've heard a BANG, CRASH, and Naraku screaming, "Holy crud! Where's my car!!??"

Right after Naraku was gone to investigate the situation, Kagome threw a rope out the window. Eri climbed up, and hoisted a bulging backpack onto the floor. Yuka followed shortly after.

"Ok, Kagome," Eri explained. "Yuka and I put together a backpack with all the things that you're going to need. Hence, the bulges."

"We're going to walk you through the items that are in here," Yuka smiled, and pulled a box of make-up.

"Um…I don't wear make-up…" Kagome muttered.

"Well, now you are!" Eri beamed, trying to ignore the anguished howls of Naraku two miles away. "We're going to cover up those scars, and then you're going to be the New Kagome."

Kagome lightly touched the bruise on her face, and winced. It still hurt after 6 days.

Yuka also pulled out a pair of jeans, two pairs of green sailor skirts, two matching sailor tops, and a file folder. She explained, "I told Eri to give you jeans—and I embellished a letter K on one of the pockets. The uniform is for Shikon Boarding School, and the file folder is a transcript that Eri and I made. You're going to need it."

Kagome peeked into the backpack, and saw feminine products, lingerie (apparently creatively decorated), and a tweezer like tool. Kagome pulled that out and showed it to Eri and Yuka.

"And this is for…?"

"Oh! I plumb forgot about that!" Yuka grabbed the tweezers, and pulled out a micro-chip, and a stick of gum from her pocket. Chewing the gum, she brought over the landline phone in Kagome's room, and unscrewed the base of the phone, revealing a complex maze of wires. "Dhis wih wok! Twust mi." Yuka spoke, while chewing the gum.

Kagome looked at Yuka with her eyebrows raised, who was now fiddling with the wires inside the phone with the tweezers. If Naraku found out that the phone was tampered with…

"All done!" Yuka beamed, waving Kagome over. "Your step-father had placed a recorder inside the phone. I used my gum to block that recorder."

Eri asked, "Wouldn't Naraku think something's fishy about the phone?"

"That's where my microchip comes in place. I built it completely out of bobby pins and really small screws. This microchip will supply pre-made recordings, so all Naraku's going to hear is Kagome talking to one of us about mindless girl chatter. He's not going to care about mindless stuff, right?"

Kagome looked and listened on wide-eyed. A microchip out of bobby pins and screws? Yuka was the most creative person…Kagome asked, "Wait…were you the one who won that one science competition with a rotating clothes hangers and some mechanical robot and some dirt bike wheel?"

Yuka nodded and smiled, "Yea. But there was a 9 inch long spring and three old pairs of shoes involved as well. Trust me, too complicated to explain."

Kagome's head was spinning. _So…we have a carjacker and an inventor together…Naraku's in for it big time…_ Kagome thought.

Yuka added on, "I shifted a few wires around in the phone as well. So now, if anything happens to Souta, he can call the emergency hotlines. Even though I only made changes to your phone, apparently your phone is hooked up to all the phones in the house. Naraku definitely purposely did that so he could hear your conversation on another phone. Anyway, So then one change to one phone will change the rest."

Once Yuka was done talking, Eri said, "By the way, you'll be enrolling in freshman year at Shikon. The school system is a tad different. Their freshman year is equivalent to Tomodachi High's Sophomore year. You'll graduate one year later than us, but you'll be a whole heck of a lot smarter than us. See? We're going to help you get out of this place. But I wonder how Ayumi's doing…"

As if on cue, a big explosion of cursing and yelling reverberated throughout a ten mile radius. "WHAT HAPPENED TO MY CAR!? HOW DID IT GET LIKE THIS!?"

"Eri! Yuka!" a voice whispered from outside the window, barely audible over Naraku's howling. "We've gotta go!"

"Well, it looks like Ayumi did a good job…" Yuka trailed. "We've gotta go. One day, we'll meet again."

Kagome whispered, "Yes. We will. Arigato Gozaimas."

Although Kagome never really knew Yuka, she gave her a big hug. Eri was crying, and gave Kagome a long hug, wishing that it would last forever. But at last, Yuka and Eri parted, leaving Kagome with her own future in her hands.

**End Flashback**

* * *

With one last look at the place that had given her so much suffering, Kagome fled down the long country roadside. 


	2. Hitchhiking with New Friends

**Chapter 2: Hitchhiking With New Friends**

Panting, Kagome stopped in her tracks and checked her watch: 3:30 A.M. Looking at the pedometer clipped to her waist, Kagome read: "5.22 miles"

_Crap._ _My body must have really gotten out of shape from lack of exercise in Naraku's house. _Tokyo was over 100 miles away, and Yuka said that if Kagome went fast, she could get there in time for school to start on August 1st. After all, Yuka had doubly reassured, Kagome had competed in the Osaka Marathon and was in the top 20 percent who finished first.

OK, even with that in check, how was she going to get to Tokyo just by running? Did Yuka even take into consideration that Kagome would have to find shelter, get across that one little waterway shortcut in order to get to Tokyo, or that Kagome could be kidnapped along the way?

Apparently not.

Kagome sighed and took a brisk walk. A car drove along the road. _Should I hitchhike?_ Kagome knew the dangers of hitchhiking, but she could either die on the way to Tokyo or risk hitchhiking.

"Hey, gal! Need a ride?" the driver smiled, flicking her high ponytail behind her shoulders. At least the driver was a girl, and so were the two other passengers in the car.

"H-Hai." Kagome stuttered.

"Hop on in!"

Kagome got in the backseat of the car and found that a girl with a childish face was sitting in the backseat too. She had her hair down with part of it up in a small ponytail and smiled at Kagome, as she helped her put her backpack on the floor of the car. After everyone was settled down, the driver drove on.

The girl in the passenger seat started, "Sa-ango! Didn't your aunt say that you're not supposed to pick up hitchhikers?"

Kagome bunched her eyebrows together and took a closer look at the girl in the passenger seat. Everything that the girl was wearing was purple. In fact, everything about her could be described with a letter 'p'. _P_urple headband, _p_igtails, _p_assenger seat _p_erson, _p_urple sweat_p_ants and maybe…_p_ushy? _No, that's not the right word. _Kagome thought. _Anyways, maybe this isn't starting out so great…_

"Whatever Ayame," the driver, whose name was apparently Sango, sighed. Kagome could see her roll her eyes. "My aunt's not going to care, she's not here to see me pick up people, and she shouldn't know…unless you tell her. And trust me, you don't me to hurt you because of that. Got it?"

In the passenger seat, Ayame shuddered. _Right, '_p_ushy' definitely wasn't the right word…more like '_p_usillanimous'…_Kagome couldn't help but think that Sango was a control freak.

Sango spoke again, "I think we all need to introduce ourselves. I'm Sango Taija, and I'm fifteen. Oh, and my cat youkai pet that's on my lap is Kirara."

The "youkai" Kirara just blinked at Kagome. Kagome mustered a weak smile. She had no idea what a youkai was. But that…"youkai" just looked…odd. It was a cat, but it wasn't one at the same time…

"I'm Ayame Okami, ditto Sango's age," said the girl in the passenger seat.

"And I'm Rin Aidoru and I'm fifteen," the girl next to Kagome said. Rin added on, "Even though I look like I'm ten."

"I'm Kagome Higurashi," Kagome said. _Maybe if I don't talk about my age, they won't ask…_

Wrong.

"And how old are you?" Ayame instantly cut in right after Kagome stopped talking.

"And why do you care?" Rin chided Ayame.

"Seriously, Wolf-Bum! Maybe if she doesn't want to say her age, she doesn't want to!" Sango snapped, speeding up a little.

_Maybe if I turned the letter 'p' upside-down into a letter 'b', I could easily think of '_b_usybody' for Ayame…_

"Gee Whiz, so-o-rry! Rin, Sango. You're lucky I love you guys…" Ayame huffed, shrinking in her seat. She hurriedly added on, "AS FRIENDS!"

"Yea, or what? Or what, Wolf-Punk?" Rin replied.

Sango turned to Ayame and spoke, "You know, this is my car. I could kick you out anytime I want to."

"Then my mom would get mad at you."

"So what?"

Sango, Rin, and Ayame seemed to have completely ignored Kagome, but Kagome was OK about it. The less talking to her, the better. She didn't need any unintentional questions about her family.

_But Kami, I'm officially in the Land of the Weird… Really…_Wolf-bumWolf-Punk?_ What kind of names are those? _

The bickering continued for about ten minutes more, with increasingly derogatory terms following 'wolf'. Kagome decided that if she didn't stop things, Ayame would seriously get kicked out of the car. She smiled very weakly. "No, really, it's OK. You don't have to call Ayame names or anything…I'm fifteen like you guys."

At once, all the talking stopped. Then Ayame continued, "SEE? Told you so!"

"I need to get to the Shikon Boarding School in Tokyo to enroll in ninth grade. It's the best I can do to get away from my 'family'." Kagome continued quickly. It was probably best to continue conversation on a different track—as long as a member of the car didn't get kicked out.

"Interesting…" Sango replied, keeping her eyes to the road. "Would you happen to be from the rural parts of Osaka?"

Kagome froze. _Stalker?_ "Yes…"

"Ah! I knew it!" Sango exclaimed, slightly speeding up, which earned a cry from Ayame. "You're Souta Higurashi's older sister! I should've guessed by the resemblance in the faces! Souta comes down to see my brother Kohaku quite often."

Kagome's insides melted, and thanked Kami for having make-up on her face to cover the bruises. Sango wasn't referring to Kagome's comments about her 'family'. Kagome added on, "Yea, I've heard of your brother. We live a little far from you guys. You guys live in the heart of Osaka, right?"

"Yup," Ayame answered this time. "We're all going to Shikon for ninth grade too! We actually left half an hour ago with Sango's aunt freaking out about her own daughter driving. And thank goodness, we made it out of Osaka with no casualties!"

"Haha. Very funny, Ayame." Rin sarcastically snapped. "Sango and I passed our driving test the very first time with no mistakes. You failed the test thrice with twelve mistakes on the test you passed. In fact, you hit that same old granny dummy for all four times you took the test!"

Sango shook her head at her friends' comments, and commented, "In the school, we get to learn regular high school courses as well as train for a special something when we grow up. What do you want to train for over there? Miko, Demon Exterminator…?"

"Umm…train for?" Kagome was confused. Eri didn't tell her about training…And a _Demon Exterminator_? Kami, this was a violent girl…

"Well, apparently you haven't been out of the rural area of Osaka much. Everyone in the city knows about demons (youkais), hanyous (half demons), and mikos (priestesses). But your brother knows everything about and everything else because he visits us in the city so much," Sango replied. "Doesn't he talk to you about us or those subjects at all?"

"Umm…he might've mentioned the word 'miko' or 'youkai' once, but Nara-, I mean, Dad wasn't so hot about it."

"Well, I guess you're gonna learn more about them now." Sango said. "Mikos are women that can harness power. The 'power' is seen in pink energy. And they can summon spirits or whatever, but I'm not an expert on mikos. Youkais and Hanyous trace all the way back to the Feudal Era of Japan. Some are evil, some are good. I'm sure that doesn't need much explaining, right?"

Kagome nodded, even though she was still quite confused. Next to her, Rin assured, "Don't worry, once you get to Shikon, everything will clear up."

Sango continued, "These special jobs are basically what we're majoring in. So technically, you could call us 'minor college students'. It's our life-time job that we're training in."

"Can we switch if we don't like our training?" Kagome asked.

"Well, yea…" Ayame said with an ambivalent voice. "But that's not the best idea. It's like saying that you suddenly want to switch majors in college. It's a waste of time and money."

"And plus, there's still an actual 'college' after Shikon. Kind of like graduate school. That graduate school requires a certain number of credits in a certain training course, or you'll have to repeat at Shikon again. Trust me, very humiliating…" Rin warned.

"So…what are all your jobs?" Kagome ventured.

"Ten years ago, my mother, father, and grandparents were killed by evil youkais. That's why my brother and I are living with our aunt and uncle. I'm training to be a demon exterminator for revenge," explained Sango.

"I'm going to the boarding school to learn more about my species, the wolf demons," Ayame said. "Yea, I'm a wolf youkai, even though I don't look like one. Currently, some areas in Japan are having problems with the actual 'wild' wolf youkais from the mountains crossing boundary lines. So when I grow up, I'm going to be a sort of ambassador. Then I'll probably meet a hunky wolf demon too…"

"I'm going there to be a better singer, and learn social skills to entertain different people. You see, I want to be kind of like a tour guide for people on their journeys." Rin cheerfully said.

"I don't know what to be though." Kagome felt lost.

"Wait. First things first. Do you already have the super cute green-skirt-white-sailor-top-uniforms of the Shikon Boarding School?" Ayame asked.

"Ummm…yea. I've got two sets of the uniform. I don't have the brown loafers though. I also have snacks, make-up, a pair of jeans that I'm wearing right now, and feminine supplies," Kagome said.

"OK. Good enough," Ayame continued. "But yet, not enough. Since we're gonna get there long before school starts, we're gonna take you shopping, and find you a job so you can earn money. Who's paying for your tuition?"

"My friend Eri," Kagome said. She could feel the entire conversation going the wrong way.

"Nani? Why not your parents? What's the matter? Why—" Ayame started, until Rin broke her off with a glare.

"Kagome, is there something wrong?" Sango asked.

"Hai…"

Kagome launched into her parent's death stories…

**AN: Hey guyz! What did you think about this? Personally, I thought it was a TON better. But if you guys have ANY ideas on how to improve this, TELL ME! (I think some of my grammar and commas are out of place…)**


	3. Meanwhile, with Other Students

**Chapter 3: Meanwhile, With Other Students…**

"Yea, dad, I swear…I WON'T touch other young lady's bottoms anymore since I'm learning to be a monk with purification powers at Shikon Boarding School. I also need to find a way to end the curse on the Wind Tunnel that is etched into my hand. And by doing so, I can keep the power, but end the curse, which has killed my father and grandfather." Miroku Hoshi rolled his eyes up, as he sat in the backseat of his step-dad, Mushin Bonze's, car. "And got me stuck with you…" he muttered.

"Good. I received countless phone calls from the headmistress at school about your reckless behavior toward young women. And I also heard that!" Mr. Bonze cried. He had literally composed a New School Year Resolution for Miroku to recite again and again.

His friends, Inuyasha and Sesshomaru Taiyoukai and Koga Roukyou snickered next to Miroku. All of them were crammed into the backseat of Miroku's step-father's car, as the front-seat was taken up by luggage. They were all the same age, 16, and knew all about Miroku's womanizing behavior. They'd been friends since last year at the Shikon Boarding School.

Miroku saw his friends covering their mouths with laughter. He fixed the small rattail on his head, and whispered, "Jeez, you guys, stop laughing. To make everything close to even, let's just say that we're held back one year. That's why we're all still in ninth grade."

"Crap! I forgot!" Koga yelled, while his brown head wrap fell off. "That means we still get Bankotsu Sansu, that nerdy 18-year-old teacher for Honors Pre-Cal!"

"Are we there yet?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Hey!" Mr. Bonze warned. "No insults toward your elders! Besides, I still can't see why you can't be more like Bankotsu. He graduated from the most prestigious college in the world when he was ten! And you guys were held back one year! And NO, Sesshomaru, we are NOT there yet. That was about the 7006th time you asked me since we left Osaka at 3 this morning!"

"Feh. Bankotsu _is_ only eighteen…" Inuyasha mumbled, his ears twitching uncomfortably. "So what? Probably as naïve as anyone else. Remember Hojo Hasukita? He was Mr. Bonze's definition of "smart", by getting A's and that stuff. But Hojo wasn't really "smart"; he was just a good student. Somebody threw a rock at a window and blamed Hojo for it. Anyways, Hojo got transferred to another school not being able to stand up for himself. Pretty dumb if you ask me."

There was silence. Hojo Hasukita was well known for his best grades at Shikon Boarding School and was not really well-liked for that matter. He was framed for throwing a rock at Bankotsu Sansu's classroom, and was transferred out.

Miroku carried on, "I could've thought of about a million ways to get myself out of that situation."

"Oh, yea, Monk-Kid? I could've thought of _two_ million," sneered Sesshomaru.

"Shut up, Sesshy," Inuyasha rudely interuppted. "I could've thought of an _infinite_ number of ways because I—"

Koga cut Inuyasha off by laying a punch to Inuyasha's stomach.

"Oh, hmm, let me guess," Mr. Bonze chided sarcastically. "Based on Inuyasha's little slip back there, maybe it was _you_ guys who threw the rock at Bankotsu's window!" Mr. Bonze chided.

The boys could only sweatdrop. OK, they had thrown the rock at the window, but it was for a good cause! They were just trying to train Hojo to talk himself out of things, if he _ever_ got in trouble…but well, the flaw with that was that 1. Hojo NEVER got in trouble and 2. Hojo was probably a hopeless case of the smart student vs. good student issue.

Miroku said, "Aww…dad, just give up on it! You've been talking about Brainless Bankotsu like he's your idol!"

"Oh, screw this. Koga, Miroku, did you bring everything that you need? Ready to meet some cute girls?" Sesshomaru cut in, before Mr. Bonze could say anything more. "Yashi probably needs another girl. He ditched Kikyou Yogensha, or something. I heard that she was a worthless excuse of a human." Sesshomaru smirked, and dodged a punch from Inuyasha.

"Look, Sesshy, she was a filthy –-----------" Inuyasha said, and muttered a long string of derogatory terms about his ex-girlfriend.

"I'm ready to meet some girls," Miroku said, not looking at this step-dad. "Hai, I brought cologne, three pairs of the school uniform that literally suffocates you when buttoned up to the neck, snacks, everything else a guy needs…" Miroku said, passing a shifty look to Koga, who bit his lip to prevent laughing out loud. "I'll bet Fluffy brought his boa with him."

"My name IS NOT FLUFFY! And that's not a boa! I'm telling you that it's my tail, but no one ever believes me! Some girls in the public thought I sill looked hot and sexy with it," Sesshomaru hissed. He then muttered loud enough that he thought only his friends could hear, "Worthless excuse of a human…"

"Hey, no name calling back there! That goes for Miroku and Sesshomaru!" Mr. Bonze called.

Sesshomaru glared at Miroku, and said to Inuyasha, "Thanks for defending your brother."

"Feh. Half-bro you mean," Inuyasha clarified. "I'm only half-demon, remember? You used to tease me so much about it, and you used to send fireball after fireball for my butt. I guess all the karma's whipping _your_ butt now. Besides, you are a heck of a lot more powerful than I am…or so you think."

"NANI?" Sesshomaru's eyes turned to daggers, as he stared down the smug Inuyasha. "You are NOT more powerful than I am."

"Of course I am."

"Of course you're not."

"Of course I AM."

"Of course you're NOT."

Koga took the opportunity to say, "Awww….does baby Fwuffy need his mawmy and daddy to pwotect him fwom mean things?"

Miroku snickered loudly, and Sesshomaru socked him and Koga.

"OK, I told you to stop once. Seriously, guys!" yelled Mr. Bonze.

It was now nearing about seven in the morning. The boys were glad that there was only about an hour left in the trip.

"So…" Inuyasha testily started. "Just WHY did we leave at 3 in the morning again?"

Miroku replied, "Dude. I thought we went over this already. We're supposed to have that one meeting with that old hag secretary Ms. Kaede at 1:00 P.M."

"Big deal. We get to Tokyo at around 8 A.M. anyways. Why the 5 hour difference?" Inuyasha sighed, looking out the window.

"Because, Inuyasha," Mr. Bonze started explaining. "I have a meeting at 1:30 P.M., so right after I drop you guys off, I have to drive all the way back to Osaka for that meeting. Also we have to drive through so many winding roads that it takes up about 5 hours. And you guys need to rest and unpack after you get all the way to Tokyo."

Koga added, "Or maybe because Sesshy takes SUCH a LONG TIME dragging his FLUFFY BOA around and it takes such a LONG TIME to make Miroku WAKE UP after slapping him unconscious for groping women."

This time, Koga was punched in the stomach by Sesshomaru and Miroku.

"Will you guys just CUT. IT. OUT!?" Mr. Bonze frustratingly screamed, swerving his car to avoid crashing into another car that was speeding. The four boys in the back knocked there heads together.

"DAD! Watch it!" Miroku shouted, fixing his rattail again.

"Yea, well, you freakin' teens should watch your driving. There was some girl with a long ponytail who wasn't much older than you driving three other girls in a car. Kami, she nearly killed me!"

"Well, she sounds hot…" Miroku wondered. Catching his step-father's glare, he corrected, "Well, she sounds hot-tempered…"

Inuyasha added, "Speaking of hot, there's nearly no oxygen left in this car. I feel really hot right now…"

Sesshomaru snickered, "Eww…"

"Stuff it, Fluffy," Inuyasha cut in. "Mr. Bonze, could you turn on the air conditioning?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"NO!"

"Whhhyyyyy?"

"1. You guys are a bunch of immature brats 2. This car is basically so old to the point where nothing works anymore, so I can't roll down the windows. 3. I didn't get air conditioning as a kid, so why don't you guys just bear it for the rest of the trip?"

"Selfish…" Inuyasha muttered.

"I heard that!" Mr. Bonze roared. _Fine, I lied. But if you guys want air conditioning so badly, I'll freeze you guys…_

Mr. Bonze secretly turned on the air conditioning switch in the car that would cool only the back seats…to about 32 degrees Fahrenheit—freezing temperature. While doing so, he casually asked, "So what special classes is each of you taking again?"

"I'm practicing leadership skills and learning more about the wolf species. Then I can be a leader of any wolf pack," Koga ambitiously said, putting his head wrap back on. It didn't seem so hot anymore…

"Dad, you know what I'm doing." Miroku said. Catching the eye of his dad in the rearview mirror, he added on, "And I'm not going to grope people."

"I'm practicing the skill of the Tetsusaiga sword. I need to master it." Inuyasha said. He silently added so that only his friends could hear, "And I need to find a way to become full demon." That had been his wish ever since Sesshomaru had abused him many times for being half-demon.

"I need to learn more magical powers. And learn not to give random dead bugs life from my Tessaiga." Sesshomaru said.

Someone said, "Let's hope Fwuffy's furw doesn't buwrn in a fiwreball he makes…and let's hope his bwain doesn't go soft ovwer a dead bug…"

Sesshomaru punched Koga in the gut again and then fell silent. Meanwhile, the four in the back had put on all the extra layers that they had, and were shivering like mad.

"Hey, Mr. Bonze?" Koga asked, blowing on his hands. It was colder than usual, but at least his demon body could deal with it.

"Hm?"

"Why are there a few icicles forming off of the ceiling of the car?"

"Really? I don't see or feel a thing."

"Hey, Dad. Seriously, if you turned on the AC, we thank you, but could you turn it down?"

"What AC?"

"No, seriously Mr. Bonze…" Inuyasha pleaded. Ice was forming off his silver hair. Being half-demon, he was stronger than a normal human like Miroku, but Inuyasha had no idea how much longer he could last.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Yea, guys," Sesshomaru falsely agreed. He was a pretty powerful full demon, and was glad that he could protect himself against the cold better than anyone else. "What are you talking about?"

By now, Miroku and Inuyasha were shivering like crazy. Koga's teeth were going to chatter any minute now…

"Shut up, Sesshy. You've got your boa to keep you warm…" Koga snapped back.

Sesshomaru had to agree with Koga…just not on the part that his tail was a boa. But it was best not to give a comeback in this situation…

There was nothing that the boys could do but shut up and hope that Mr. Bonze would give them mercy. But then…

"Are we there yet?" Sesshomaru asked for the 7007th time.

"NOOOOOOO!" Mr. Bonze screamed. Then he muttered, "I must have been crazy to offer to drive you guys for five hours to school."

_Well, ya kinda deserved it…_ Inuyasha thought to himself, this time making sure that Mr. Bonze didn't hear a peep.


	4. Kagome's Life Story

**Chapter 4: Kagome's Life Story**

A recap: _"OK. Good enough," Ayame continued. "But yet, not enough. Since we're gonna get there long before school starts, we're gonna take you shopping, and find you a job so you can earn money. Who's paying for your tuition?"_

"_My friend Eri," Kagome said. She could feel the entire conversation going the wrong way._

"_Nani? Why not your parents? What's the matter? Why—" Ayame started, until Rin broke her off with a glare._

"_Kagome, is there something wrong?" Sango asked._

"_Hai…"_

Kagome fingered the necklace in her hand. The light that reflected off of the precious object twinkled, beckoning her to tell The Story. With a little encouragement from the necklace, she took a deep breath and started, "I was only twelve when my parents died, my brother, Sota, four…"

**Flashback: Three years ago, July 4, Kagome's 12th birthday**

"Daddy! I'm home!" Kagome cheerily called out from the driveway. It was her birthday today, and she was excited, just hoping that her father would give her a little present. Of course, it wasn't good to hope too much, but she was just happy. But the house looked dark, and there weren't any lights on inside.

_That's strange, _Kagome thought, _Daddy's normally home at this time. Maybe he's out buying something for me, or better yet, going to surprise me!_

With that happy thought in her head, she continued down the driveway. Suddenly, a crash sounded from her house, and she saw a dark figure in black run away. Kagome ran like the wind, tripping a couple of times and scraping her knees badly. But how did a couple of scrapes matter? Her father could be hurt.

She burst into the house, and flipped on the lights. She gasped. The entire downstairs was a mess! Overturned tatami mats and broken china lay all over the floor.

"Daddy! Are y-you th-there?" Kagome fearfully asked. No one answered. Neglecting to take off her shoes, she searched the entire kitchen, only to find the refrigerator turned inside out, and the cabinets hanging open. She finally found a trail of blood leading upstairs…

"KKKKKYYYYYYAAAAAAAAA! DAAAADDDDDYYYYY!" Kagome found herself screaming. It was the only thing anyone could hear for miles. With blood still trickling like a flow of water, Kagome's father was pinned a foot from the floor onto the wall, eyes bulging open, with a sword where his heart was.

**End flashback**

The entire car was totally silent. Ayame had tissues in her hand, and Rin was pale white. Sango had to concentrate on driving, but her eyes were wide as dinner plates. Even Kirara was restless. No one said anything for a long time.

Finally, it was Kagome herself that broke the silence, "I still can see a small blemish on the wall where my father was pinned. We were able to mostly clean it up. Anyways, a man named Naraku married my mother afterwards. He knew her through Internet dating.

"To me, my mother's new marriage felt like a forced marriage…as if something terrible would happen if she didn't marry him. Shortly after Naraku's arrival, it was as if everything in the house started dying and breaking. The wallpapers peeled, the flowers died every hour, our shrine's well became devoid of water…But my mother didn't have to suffer from that for very long. About two months after being married, she died. I still believe it's from shock, but the doctors say it's cancer from radiation…"

**Flashback: 3 years ago, September 13th, Osaka Hospital**

"You're absolutely sure that your mother never sunbathed?" the nurse gently asked Kagome.

"No duh! Why else would her skin be as white as tofu?" Kagome snapped back. She still hadn't quite recovered from the shock of seeing her father dead.

"Kagome Higurashi?" a doctor questioned, as he came out of Mrs. Midoriko Higurashi's room. "Your mother wants to see you."

As the pair was walking down the hallway to Mrs. Higurashi's room, the doctor said, "The cancer that your mother obtained was definitely from at least one month of constant radiation. But if your mother always wore sunscreen, never sunbathed, and never had any family members that had this form of deadly skin cancer, I wonder how she would get it?"

Kagome's face was stone still. When they finally reached the room, Kagome just strode in to her mother's side without knocking on the door.

"Mom! Are you OK?" Kagome yelled.

"Hush, my Little Woven Basket of love. I've not got long to live. I can feel it…ancient spirits are telling me so…But take this necklace, and protect it with all your might. Do not let anyone know until a later time. I cannot tell you the purpose of the necklace."

"B-but why? Why can't you tell me? When's this later time?"

"You'll understand the purpose…I just can't tell you. It won't be helpful…just protect the jewel as you would protect your family. Your time is when you turn fifteen—you'll have friends… friends that will help you understand…friends that you can trust, friends that you can tell about the jewel…to…" Midoriko sighed, as the last words came from her mouth. The heart rate monitor became still, and began to beep loudly.

"No! Mom! NO, WAKE UP! What do I need to understand?" Kagome cried loudly. Nurses and doctors rushed in, and she was ripped away from one of her last loves of her life. Naraku was waiting at the doorway with Sota in his arms, and dragged Kagome down the hall.

**End flashback**

"Naraku abused me terribly after that. He cut off the emergency hotlines so we wouldn't be able to report abuse. He bought me the ugliest clothing ever, and I didn't have much to wear either." Kagome shamefully said. "The jeans I have are bought by Eri. I've known her forever, and her family is rich too. Although her parents don't know that I'm abused, they are willing to buy anything for Eri and her friends…"

Kagome continued with what had happened a week ago on her birthday, and Sango softly said, "Your life's path would be best as a miko. Your mother was probably one too. Is that the jewel that your mother asked you to protect?"

Kagome nodded.

"Well, I'm not so sure what that jewel is, really, but it seems very important. Keep it safe."

"You can trust us, Kagome. We'll be your friends. If you need help to cover up those wounds, we can help you," Ayame confidently stated, turning around and looking Kagome in the eyes as a way of stating her promise.

_Perhaps my best word for Ayame is…Promise…_ Kagome gratefully thought.

Kagome could only nod. Rin saw the necklace in Kagome's hands, and gently took it, examining it. Kagome didn't resist. For once in her life, she could finally trust someone. Flashes of ruby, emerald, sapphire, and a bit of pink from the small jewel at the end winked around the car.

_It is a very beautiful necklace. I wonder why your mother would want you to protect it so badly?_ Rin thought. _I've heard of the description of this jewel…but I can't recall it…_


	5. Naraku's Evil Plot

**Chapter 5: Naraku's Evil Plot**

"Good morning Sota!" Naraku cheerfully greeted Sota, as the little boy walked down the stairs. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, daddy!" Sota said, as he gave a fake smile. He couldn't sleep. He knew that Kagome was in school somewhere weird, and he couldn't believe that Naraku hadn't found out that Kagome disappeared. But Sota was still confused. Eri only told Sota that Kagome was going to study in a place where demons and mortals studied together.

"Do you know how that wench is doing? She hasn't come out of her room for days," Naraku asked Sota.

"I-I don't know," Sota said. To please his step-father, he just said, "She probably died in her room."

"Oh," Naraku just said. But Sota saw a nasty gleam in his eye, and got a squirming feeling in his stomach. "I'm gonna place a private call, Sota, so stay here."

Sota, however, followed Naraku silently, and eavesdropped on the conversation.

"Kagura Kaze, Kanna Kagami! Can you hear me?" Naraku asked. "Good. Reception sucks over here for a cell phone. I know where that girl has gone. The wench left a scrap of paper on the floor that said 'Shikon Boarding School'. I bet it was off a registration paper. That's in Tokyo.

"I need you to track her down. You're students there anyways. Remember, I want that jewel back. I already went through the trouble of killing the parents. Getting rid of the girl should be easy. I could already smell power on the girl when she walked out of the hospital three years ago. Pity I couldn't already get what I needed from Kagome's mother. I married her for nothing! Kagome had it in her room, but there were spells protecting her and the jewel until she left the premises of the house permanently, like now. Damn that miko mother."

He paused a little, as Kagura or Kanna was talking. He had an annoyed look on his face, and said, "_Baka!_ Quit pitying me! Just bring your stupid mirror, and tell Kagura to bring her fan! The wench doesn't know about her own powers. She should be easy to subdue! Good. Good. If you two still can't make it, then get Kikyo Yogensha to help you. Bye."

Naraku cut off the line, and walked back to the house. Sota dashed back into his chair, and hastily drank his miso soup before Naraku walked through the door. _Oh my gosh! _Sota thought, _He wants to kill Kagome. He's an animal or demon or whatever. Aunty Kanna and Aunty Kagura need to kill Kagome. Kagome doesn't even know who they are! I've heard of Kikyo Yogensha because she was the fortune teller and priestess for our school's history fair. Naraku killed my real mommy and daddy! And I can't contact Kagome! The emergency hotlines have been cut off!_

Seeing his step-father walk back into the kitchen made Sota feel sick. He piped up as cheerfully as he could, "Daddy? Could I have pocket money to go the theme park with Kohaku-kun today?"

Naraku smiled. The innocence of Sota reminded him of his long dead younger sister. "Sure, kiddo!"

Sota bounded out of the house, and Naraku looked after the fading figure of his step-son. Such energy…it was painful…

Naraku sat back in his chair and thought of his late sister's sweet face. She'd really messed up her life when she ran off with her husband—it made him sick. But now, Naraku was on a quest to bring her back…

Sometimes, he wished that Sota could just magically turn into his sister, and everything would be fine…but that would never happen. Bringing back the dead was one thing—shifting bodies of people while they were alive and not treated as a sacrifice was another.


	6. Super Short Chappie of the Guys

**Chapter 6: Super Duper Short Chapter of the Guys**

Miroku was snoring, with Koga sleeping on his shoulder, drooling on him. Inuyasha had somehow fallen over both of them, and was snoring too. They had gotten so cold to the point where they felt fatigue.

Finally realizing that he was dealing with human lives—well, one and a half human lives if you added Miroku as a human and Inuyasha as a half human, Mr. Bonze had slightly relented on the extreme temperatures of the air conditioning, and had turned it down a little—but not much. It was still about fifty degrees in the back of the car, while Mr. Bonze had kept a nice steady room temperature in the front of the car.

Sesshomaru thought, _This has GOT to go in the memory bank,_ and snapped a picture of them bundled up with melting icicles hanging all over his friends.

Mr. Bonze suddenly yelled and swerved again, "WTF! What was that flash!"

Sesshomaru took his chance to annoy Mr. Bonze, "Are we there yet?"

"NOOOOOO!" Mr. Bonze screamed, loud enough to wake up the sleeping trio.


	7. A Bad Intro at Shikon Boarding School

**Chapter 7: A Bad Introduction at Shikon Boarding School**

"Kagome, KAGOME! Wake up! We're at school!" Sango called.

Kagome woke up with a snort, and smiled at her little rude wake-up. She checked her watch: July 11, 8:30 A.M. It was great to just get at Shikon Boarding School in only about six hours instead of having to run all the way. Too bad she couldn't contact Sota or Eri…way to risky.

"You know, Kagome, you look, well, like you're free when you smile," Ayame said. Sango kicked her for saying that.

Rin cut in, and said, "Look. We're supposed to meet up at the Welcome Center at one o'clock to meet our tourguides: Miroku Hoshi, Koga Roukyou, Inuyasha Taiyoukai, and Sesshomaru Taiyoukai. I've heard that they got held back one year, so they're in ninth grade like us, and older than us by one year. But I'll bet they're brilliant in a way."

"Yea, brilliant enough to flunk school," Sango said.

"Well, they probably know every crook and nanny in this place. Otherwise, they wouldn't be tour guides for new comers," Kagome stated sagely.

"Yea, yea. Let's just go. We can eat breakfast first. I'm starved." Ayame said.

* * *

**The Guys**

Meanwhile, Mr. Bonze was just telling everyone about being careful after he dropped them off at Shikon Boarding School, "Boys, the world is more dangerous these days. Evil youkais are prowling and…"

"OK man, we'll be careful." Koga said.

"Yea, bye dad!" Miroku called, as he started to jog away.

"Uh, yea, thanks Mr. Bonze! We have to go lead around some people around to show them the school and stuff. Their names are Rin, Sango, and Ayame or something," Inuyasha said.

Sesshomaru added, "Yea, we're ready to wreak some more havoc there!"

Mr. Bonze looked at the four who were jogging away, and slowly shook his head. "Teenage boys will never learn, will they?"

* * *

**Meeting Each Other**

"Hurry up, hurry up!" Rin screamed. "It's nearly time to get there."

"Kami, Rin. It's only fifteen more minutes until show time! Why the rush!?" Sango complained.

"We spent too much time packing everything and stuff, and omigosh, omigosh we're gonna be soo laaaaattte!!!"

Ayame poked Kagome, and said, "When Rin is on a roll about time, there's no point stopping her. Even when we're half an hour early to any event, she'll say we're late."

"Come on guys! Hurry---" WHAM! BANG! OUCH! CRASH! All four girls bumped into four guys around a corner.

"-Cough!- -Cough!- Man, I didn't know guys wore super fluffy boas these days!" Rin yelled when she bumped into Sesshomaru, getting a mouthful of his bushy tail.

"And I didn't know that girls didn't have eyes in the front of their head, or have a brain these days!" Sesshomaru snarled.

"Dude! You need glasses!" Ayame screamed at Koga.

"Hark who's talking!" He retorted.

"HENTAI! You pervert!" Sango screeched at Miroku. He had groped her butt. Miroku didn't scream anything, except "Ouch!" before falling to the ground unconscious, sporting a red hand mark. Kirara hissed at Miroku.

But in Kagome's case, it was Inuyasha who spoke first…

"Wench! Can't you see where you're going! Did you touch my ears on purpose?" Inuyasha yelled at her.

Kagome's response was so much different than the other girls' though…"Gomen-nasai." She could feel tears welling up in her eyes. She had been called 'wench' so many times in her life. And the boy's ears were so irresistibly cute, that when she bumped into him, she had to rub them. They were just like dog ears. _He would be a really cute dog youkai or dog hanyou, if he wasn't so mean. And he has really nice silver hair that flows to his waist… _

Inuyasha was mildly shocked. No one he ever called names at ever said, "Sorry" back to him. In fact, now that he thought of it, who would ever say "Sorry" back? Only the mentally crazy, or the…He looked into Kagome's eyes, and only saw pain. Not physical pain, but emotional pain.

Yes. Only the mentally crazy or people that have been hurt all their lives would ever say "Sorry" back to someone who called them names.

_Gosh, she looks so much like Kikyou…_Inuyasha thought, but then thought again, _No, I don't like this girl…I HATE Kikyou._

"Whatever," Inuyasha said gruffly. With the rest of his friends, he helped hoist up the unconscious Miroku, and walked away.

"Gosh, they were jerks! And Kagome, you were definitely waaaay too nice to the guy who bumped into you." Rin huffed.

"Yea, well, the perverted one with the pony/rat tail probably wouldn't have touched my butt if we weren't going so fast! Kirara could've been hurt!" Sango screamed. Kirara turned around and snarled in the direction Miroku had been hauled away.

"Well, they were kinda _kawaii_…" Kagome said.

Ayame's eye twitched at that.

A small silence pressed upon the crowd of girls. Then…

"You guys, we have five more minutes to get to the office." Ayame warned.

They all squealed and ran. Little did they know that there were three girls spying on the scene: one with a small mirror in her pocket, another fanning herself, and another turning green with jealousy.


	8. A Serious Case of Deja Voo

**Chap. 8: A Serious Case of Deja-Voo**

All the girls burst into the office at 1:00 P.M. The secretary said, "Hey girls. You are exactly 2.43 seconds late. But no matter. Your tour guides are late as well. By the way, I'm Ms. Kaede. What's yours?"

The girls looked at each other, and Sango started, "My name is Sango Taija, she is Ayame Okami, she is Rin Aidoru, and she is Kagome Higurashi. We're new students here."

"OK, hold a sec." the secretary said, while fiddling through a huge file cabinet. "Taija Sango, Okami Ayame, Aidoru Rin, and Higurashi Kagome. All for ninth grade? Same birthday? Wow…anyways, that's how you should say it. Last names first, and then first names. We are very traditional at Shikon Boarding School."

"Uh, right." Rin said, confused.

"Hold a sec," the secretary said. She was becoming stranger to the girls every second. "Higurashi Kagome should be having her tour with Taiyoukai Inuyasha on July 29th. Why is she here now?"

"I, uh, just joined up with them. Plans change you know," Kagome quickly covered.

The secretary raised an eyebrow and was going to say something, but the door burst open. Four boys with VERY familiar voices panted, "Sorry we're late by 3 minutes and 6.72 seconds Ms. Kaede." Evidently they already knew how to deal with the secretary.

"No matter. You should guide these people. Hoshi Miroku, you lead Taija Sango. Taiyoukai Sesshomaru, you lead Aidoru Rin. Roukyou Koga, you lead Okami Ayame. And Taiyoukai Inuyasha, you lead Higurashi Kagome. Inuyasha, Kagome is at school a bit earlier than her _suggested_ tour time, and I hope you won't mind," Ms. Kaede said, just when her cell phone rang. "Oops. Hold on. I'll let you guys introduce yourselves."

Ms. Kaede left the room. Now, the guys and girls just got the chance to truly see who each other was, and they all shrieked at the same time, "YOU?"


	9. Enter Da Mean Girls

**Chapter 9: Enter Da Mean Girls**

A mental screaming fest ensued...

_Holy crap! It's that hentai!_ Sango murderously thought.

_Is he going to strangle me with his boa?_ Rin fearfully cowered.

_No way, it's not him…I think I need an eye doctor…_Ayame pondered, blinking her eyes.

_It's that kawaii boy again…NO! WHAT AM I THINKING! I DON'T LIKE HIM!_ Kagome mentally shouted, staring into those golden orbs of the boy she'd bumped into a few moments ago.

_Will I get close enough to feel her butt again? Oh yea, I can't…Dad's orders…well, I already broke them…_Miroku mentally shrugged.

_That worthless excuse of a blind human girl…And I thought Inuyasha was dumb…_Sesshomaru sniffed.

_I think I need glasses…_Koga weakly winced.

_Is that Kikyou? Or am I totally dreaming? She's looks like Kikyou, and…WHOA! I JUST BROKE UP WITH KIKYOU! I HATE HER!_ Inuyasha screamed at himself mentally.

* * *

"So, ummm…is anyone going to say anything? Introduce their self?" Sango said weakly.

"Yea, I'm Miroku Hoshi. Forget what the old hag says about being traditional. No one is at Shikon. I'm supposed to be your tour guide." Miroku said, as he moved up super close to Sango. She knew what was coming, and slapped his hand away.

The rest of the people introduced themselves. When it came to Kagome and Inuyasha, the hanyou said, "Feh, what do you want, wench?"

Kagome stared back at Inuyasha with the coldest stare that she could ever manage. Telling her off a few moments ago was OK—reflexes right? But calling her a wench without any reason. Not good.

Inuyasha's insides froze. But he just smirked off the feelings, and said, "I'm your tourguide." He thought, _Man this is scary…it's the same look Kikyou gave me when I caught her cheating with Brainless Bankotsu…_

More silence issued, until Ayame said, "I think we should carry on with our tour."

And so the four guys led the four girls around. And it was true that they knew every single crook and nanny in the school. There was a trapdoor in the cafeteria that led to a hatch in the middle of a statue in the school quad (**for food fight emergencies, Sesshomaru had said)**, an instant daydream seat in a closet that existed only in Mr. Myouga's English class **(fresh memories indeed…we four had to fight for the seat and keep it secret, or else the other students would know, Miroku said),** some lockers that had boundless ranges of space no matter how small it looked **(I discovered that! We were able to get a permit for all of them from the principal, Ms. Takahashi, for as long as we are here, Koga exclaimed**), a VERY secret place inside one of the statues near the gym that had everything a teenager could ever want (**Great for ditching classes. Pass the credit to me, Inuyasha said),** and even locker transportation, which was discovered by Miroku when he was shoved into a locker by Inuyasha and ended up in a hallway on the other side of campus (**all you have to do is stuff yourself in a locker, think where you wanna be, and boom! Miroku said**). Kagome felt that it was more of a secret FBI school rather than a boarding school.

"So…did you guys make these places?" Rin questioned.

"Good question. No," Koga replied, adjusting his headwrap. "We found them. Our predecessors at this school made it, I guess. Anyways, we have a lot to thank them for. And all you guys should hush, 'cause no one else in this school except us knows these places."

Once they were done with the school tour (with occasional "Hentai!" screams and Miroku going unconscious), it was about three in the afternoon. The eight were going up to the office to retrieve dorm keys, when three girls appeared out of no where: Kanna Kagami, with her mirror **(it expanded to full size…sorry, I made up the fact that Kanna's mirror expands and contracts)**, Kagura Kaze, with her fan, and just Kikyou Yogensha, with her eyes set on Inuyasha. Kagome was shocked to see someone who was close to identical with her. The only difference was the eyes: Kikyou's were always cold, while Kagome's were full of sadness. "Hey Inubabe!" Kikyou seductively said, making sure to add extra movement to her hips when she walked.

Miroku, Koga, and Sesshomaru worriedly looked at Inuyasha, and then looked away, whistling as if nothing would happen. They knew what was coming up…

"Go away, you little----- ," Inuyasha snarled. "I know what you did last year with our Pre-Cal teacher."

"Awww….my little puppy…surely you can't be mad with me over that still?" Kikyou batted her eyelashes.

"Look, if this is all making Inuyasha uncomfortable, why don't you stop?" Kagome asked, suddenly feeling protective over him. Miroku, Sesshomaru, and Koga's mouth began to catch flies. No one dared to speak to Kikyou like that. Sango, Ayame, and Rin, had a feeling that Kagome liked Inuyasha.

Kikyou seemed to notice Kagome for the first time. "A bit protective aren't you, girl?" She gently pinched Kagome on the cheek. "Inuyasha is mine…" Kikyou continued in a voice that was audible for the two look-alikes.

Kanna directed her mirror to Kagome, and it seemed to mirror her entire past to her. Kagome saw herself leaning next to her mother, Naraku screaming at her, and her hurtful history seemed to resurface. Kagura waved her fan a tiny bit at Kagome, and Kagome felt chills all over herself (If Kagura had waved her fan harder, Kagome would've went twice around the world). She felt very sick…the entire world began to swim before her. As she sank down to her knees while still hypnotized by Kanna's eyes and mirror, Kikyou began to laugh…Kagome fell unconscious.


	10. Memories Gust

**I would like to thank Hearii-sama for the name, Memories Gust :)**

**Chapter 10: Memories Gust**

It was 7:00 P.M when Kagome woke up in the nurse's office. Sango, Ayame, and Rin were by her side. Sesshomaru, Miroku, and Koga were pacing back and forth. Inuyasha was missing.

"Omigosh! Kagome's awake!" Ayame squeaked with worry in her eyes.

The nurse bustled over, and said, "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three... So?" Kagome said.

Everyone was shocked. Just then, Inuyasha burst through the door, and said, "OK, OK, I beat their butts up. Holy crap! You're still feeling OK?"

"Why is everyone wondering why I'm OK? I feel OK. Nothing is broken, nothing is—" Kagome started.

"You are a lucky girl. No one has ever completely healed from Memories Gust." Sango said weakly.

Then, the nurse came through the door, and said, "There is NO SUCH THING AS MEMORIES GUST! It is only a legendary attack. It doesn't exist anymore. Kagome is only feeling queasy for school." Then she left.

"She's lying. Memories Gust still exists, and Kanna Kagami and Kagura Kaze are the only ones that can do it. It's a lie." Inuyasha said. "Everyone, get out. I need to speak to Kagome ALONE."

When everyone left with question marks in their eyes, Inuyasha pulled a chair over to Kagome's bed and sat down. Neither talked for a while.

"I already beat up Kikyou's ass. She's black and blue right now. So are Kanna and Kagura." Inuyasha said. "Look, Kagome." He started becoming serious. "Kikyou will do anything to hurt you, and so will Kagura and Kanna. Kagura and Kanna are cousins, and their Memories Gust attack is only one of their minor cooperation attacks. Their solo attacks are much more powerful."

"What is Memories Gust?"

"It is when a special mirror reflects the victims past…the more painful, the better. Then, when the victim is hypnotized, a special fan waves a wind towards them, and they become weaker. A more painful history guarantees a weaker victim. The wind is supposed to completely addle the mind while they're hypnotized. That's why Sango said that no one's really completely healed from the attack."

Kagome was speechless. There were people after her already! She had tried so hard to get away too…she could run…but there wouldn't be a safe place to hide…

"You have a painful past don't you? I could see it when you started to kneel down."

Kagome took a breath. Then she repeated part of her life to Inuyasha. She wouldn't tell everything, of course. She barely even knew the boy. He was just somebody that she'd bumped into the hallway, nothing more.

Inuyasha processed the info, and said, "At least you'll have me in every one of your classes. And everyone else, including Kikyou and her gang. But beware. During special training classes, I'm not in your miko class, and Kikyou is in there. Take extra precautions. Now, I think you should go up to your dorm. It's right across ours. Guys on one side, girls on the other. Just be careful. Kikyou's dorm is next to yours."

Kagome stared at the golden eyes. The golden eyes stared back. Kagome said, "What is between you and Kikyou?"

The golden orbs filled with hurt, and then glassed over in anger, "You don't wanna know."

* * *

**Meanwhile…**

"Ouch, OUCH! Don't rub that place so hard!" Kanna squealed. "There's a really huge bruise there!"

"Jeez, sorry cousin. It was your problem that your stupid mirror didn't reflect enough of her past!" Kagura whined, while applying a cream to Kanna.

"Well, you were supposed to wait a little before fanning her and—"

"Shut up, both of you!" Kikyou screamed. "I still can't believe I didn't get Inu-puppy back!"

Suddenly, Kagura's cell phone rang. Everyone went stone still. They knew what was coming…

"DANG IT! You didn't get the jewel from her?" Naraku screamed through the cell phone.


	11. School Starts…and So Do Feelings

**A/N This is your updated Chapter 11 readers! Have fun!**

* * *

**Chap. 11: School Starts…and So Do Feelings**

For the rest of summer vacation, Sango, Ayame, and Rin brought Kagome to the shopping mall every day to get what she needed for school. One day, when they were all seated at tiny little café, Sango said, "I think we should seriously introduce our selves properly. Just saying our names when we picked up Kagome on the road isn't good enough."

Ayame started first, "Obviously, you should probably know that my name is Ayame. My full name is Ayame Okami, and as you know already, I'm fifteen."

"You know, you could've spared the useless info that we know already…Say something about yourself that's not so obvious…" Sango rolled her eyes. She introduced, "I'm Sango Taija, ditto Ayame's age. I like martial arts, verbally abusing Ayame, beating the crud out of my brother when he annoys me—"

She stopped when she saw the shocked face on Kagome. Rin and Ayame both slapped their foreheads in embarrassment at their friend's overly open profile. Sango smiled, sweatdropped, and said, "Heh…umm…I'm kidding? But I do like martial arts. And my trusty Hiraikotsu weapon."

"I'm Rin Aidoru, same age as Sango and Ayame!" Rin squeaked, smiling widely. "I really like to sing, and one thing I'll bet you didn't know about us, Kagome, is that Sango and Ayame have the same birthday as me!"

Ayame nodded, bobbing her head up and down furiously. "Yup, and we were all born on the same time!"

This piqued Kagome's interest. At least it was something other than, "Oh, my hobby is blah, blah, blah…" Her newly found friends were essentially triplets.

"And the coolest thing is," Ayame continued, "Is that we were all born on midnight."

Kagome sat up a little straighter, nodding her head a little. She still wasn't used to talking a lot—adjusting after years of abuse took time. But one thing that Kagome learned to do if she didn't speak was listening very well, and remembering many things. _Midnight? Wait a moment…what day?_

Before Kagome could even attempt a question, Sango said, "Yea, we celebrated our birthdays quite some time ago on the fourth of July. At our old school, the kids used to call us the Liberators—partly because we were so rebellious, and partly because that's when the country of America that's so far away from us was freed."

"Hey, you were the one that forced us to be rebellious…" Rin whined, slightly pouting. "Hey Kagome, when's your…"

She stopped at the reaction of Kagome's face. Kagome was wide-eyed, and she finally said, "I was born on July 4th too…at midnight."

"Ho. Ly. Crap." Sango worded, her jaw wide open. "Don't tell me that you were born at Osaka Hospital as well, OK?"

"I was. Room 203," Kagome flatly replied.

"OMG! You're just like our soul sister! That's so cool! She's just like us! Only that Sango was born in Room 200, Ayame in Room 201, and me in Room 202!" Rin exclaimed, a big smile stretched over her face.

With that, the childish girl sprang up and gave Kagome a huge hug. Kagome gave a small smile. The jewel that her mother had left behind for her seemed to pulse just the tiniest bit.

* * *

Soon, the guys began to come along with them too. They claimed that loitering around the 7-11 was getting really boring—so they accompanied the girls to the mall. Over time, they began to split into guy-girl pairs to walk around the mall. The teens were becoming the best of friends…a little more than friends.

Rin and Sesshomaru were caught holding hands at the pet store, with Rin snuggled into his "boa" (as she liked to call it). Miroku and Sango were hugging each other on a bench, until Miroku was slapped because he touched Sango in the wrong area. Ayame and Kouga weren't that obvious, until the friends caught Kouga kissing Ayame on the cheek at the eye doctor's office (they didn't need glasses after all). But there weren't a lot of sparks between Inuyasha and Kagome yet, although they did exchange a few smiles now and then. No matter how many times Sesshomaru took pictures of them, no matter how many times Inuyasha denied it, and no matter how many times the hanyou would rip apart the pictures, no one could get a confession out of Inuyasha. The same went for Kagome.

Everyone paid more attention to Kagome, for they knew that if Kikyou and her posse appeared again, they would have to be more prepared. Kikyou probably would want revenge after a while…

* * *

**The First Day of School**

RING!

"Ok, class, settle down, settle down." the petite English teacher, Myouga-sensei, said, waving his arms in a futile attempt to calm the class down.

Miroku had won over the daydream seat. Sango was next to him, then Koga, Ayame, Sesshomaru, Rin, Inuyasha, and Kagome, all through the back row. Kikyou sat in front of Inuyasha, and consistently gave little glares to Kagome.

"Who can tell me what parallel structure and infinitives are?"

All the friends groaned. They were too smart for this class and the rest of the classes that followed…until Pre-Cal.

"Good morning guys," Bankotsu Sansu said. "Since I'm only eighteen, you guys can just call me Bankotsu. So don't call me Bankotsu-san, or Bankotsu-sensei. You don't have to call me Bankotsu-kun or anything. Just Bankotsu. 'Cause I'm cool."

"Show off," someone in the back said.

"But anyways, as we all know, or we are supposed to know…" Bankotsu looked directly at Inuyasha, Miroku, Koga, and Sesshomaru. The latter four snickered. They knew the information—it's just that they didn't apply it on tests. After hearing about Inuyasha's predicament with Kikyo, Miroku, Koga, and Sesshomaru had drawn nudes all over their tests and deliberately handed them in to Bankotsu just to show him what a terrible teacher he was. They'd given Bankotsu such a hard time last year that Bankotsu purposely failed them. "The ellipses and hyperbolas intersect with…"

And the lesson dragged on, and on, and on. They did a practice test. Kikyou and her friends failed…43. Inuyasha and his friends got the same grade…89, the best scores in the class.

"Well, well, not bad, Kikyou!" Bankotsu said. "We just need to polish things up a bit, and then you'll be getting A+'s." He gave a wide smile at Kikyou. Kikyou simpered. Inuyasha and his friends looked away in disgust, and spent the rest of the period making the smallest barfing noises.

* * *

RING!

"Finally, lunch time, indeed!" Miroku said.

"We should start a food fight!" Rin said. "I feel sooo rebellious against Brainless Bankotsu that I need to release some steam."

"Great idea!" Ayame said.

So the eight friends took their places at the corners of the room. Once the food fight started, all would go to where Inuyasha and Kagome were, lift the trap door, and sneak into the quad.

"BONZAIIII!" Sesshomaru screamed. He flung his bowl of ramen (Inuyasha whined over the waste of good food) towards Kikyou. Kikyou was hit, looked around, saw Sesshomaru, and flung her plate of sushi at him. When he dodged, and it hit another kid, and another kid, and another, and the entire food fight went underway. Kagome slightly unscrewed a soda bottle, and threw it toward the center. The fan on the ceiling somehow caught the bottle, and sprayed soda everywhere.

"Follow me!" Inuyasha called out to Kagome, and they secretly filed away under the cafeteria. Seeing that Inuyasha and Kagome had disappeared, the rest of the friends also fled in their boy-girl pairs.

* * *

**Love in the Quad**

"Ok, we're here in the quad!" Inuyasha said, as he pushed aside the statue, and stepped out of the wall. Kagome followed. Because the four corners of the cafeteria joined in one big tunnel, the rest of the friends soon came out.

"Now we just have to wait for sixth period, which would be our special training class."

They just loitered around. Kagome and Inuyasha strolled along the grass. They were very quiet, and everyone else started to spy on them silently. Sesshomaru brought out his camera and set it to "Quick" just in case anything happened.

Kagome and Inuyasha sat down on the grass. Kagome ventured, "What really happened between you and Kikyou, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha was silent. He knew the question was going to come. "She cheated on me…."

* * *

**Flashback: Shikon Boarding School, Last Year**

"Kikyou, do you wanna go out with me to the movies today? Saw II is coming out today." Inuyasha asked. Seeing his girlfriend's scared face, he added on, "If you get scared, you can hug me. I wouldn't mind."

"Sure," Kikyou blushed, going deep red.

Inuyasha was happy. Going out with Kikyou was the best thing of the day. He had been going out with her for three months, and they already planned which college they were going to together.

After school, Inuyasha went over to Kikyou's dorm to pick her up. But it was eerily silent. Normally, Kikyou would be talking to Kanna and Kagura. Inuyasha opened the door, wondering if Kikyou was hurt, and only saw the idiotic Pre-Cal teacher Bankotsu pinning Kikyou against the wall, deeply kissing her. Inuyasha gasped, and Kikyou gave him a super cold look. Then, she resumed kissing Bankotsu. Inuyasha ran out the door.

* * *

**Back to the Quad**

Kagome saw pain in Inuyasha's eyes too. They were so…so similar. Kagome wanted to relieve his pain. She couldn't resist her own conscience now…the days at the mall where she longed to just completely let it all out had built up, and were waiting to be released.

She had been shy all her life. It was time to get over it.

Kagome leaned over and kissed Inuyasha. Inuyasha's eyes widened, and then closed, enjoying her kiss. Sesshomaru took his camera, and snapped a picture of them. Then, Sango, Miroku, Koga, Ayame, Sesshomaru, and Rin started clapping. Inuyasha's ears turned redder than the ripest tomatoes in Japan, but he completely ignored it.

The one person that seemed to care was Kikyou, though. She snuck out of the cafeteria, covered in ramen, nori, and imitation crab meat. In addition to the power of the jewel that Kagome unknowingly had around her neck, she could feel the power of love.

* * *

**A/N Well, here you go. Chapter 11 has been updated. I'll go and correct other chapters if I feel like it. But I dunno.**


	12. Special Training Classes

**Chapter 12: Special Training Classes**

Kikyou was so mad Kagome for the "stealing" of Inuyasha. _Just wait until Miko Class, you little…_

The eight friends hung around the quad until their special training classes. Sesshomaru, Inuyasha, Sango, and Miroku went to the gym for their magic/fighting class. Ayame and Koga hiked out to the rockier parts of the school campus for their wolf culture class. Rin skipped to the music room for singing, and Kagome walked to the magic room for her miko training. Kagome remembered that Kikyou was in her class, and nearly threw up bile.

* * *

**With Sango, Miroku, Sesshomaru, Inuyasha**

"Haiya!" Sango screamed, bringing down her Hiraikotsu upon Kagura's back.

"Good job, Sango," Ms. Irino said. She leaned down to the unlucky victim, "Come on, you can do it, Kagura." Kagura was lucky she was padded all over with protective pads. But she was mad. Her solo attacks had never failed before!

Kanna was having a pretty rough time too. Even with her mirror, Inuyasha's attacks always seemed to go invisible and hit her from no where. **(Ok, that's probably not true, but it's my story :) nyah nyah…)**

Sesshomaru was battling Miroku. For some reason, their fights were always ending up in ties.

Ms. Irino told Sesshomaru that he was a natural. For Miroku, she said that he would need many hours of training to throw out the curse. For Inuyasha, she said that the only way to become a full demon was to help the current owner of the Shikon Jewel immensely in a priceless way. For Sango, Ms. Irino said that she only needed to make the motion of a flicking-wrist technique better, and she'd be good to go.

Ms. Irino said, "Inuyasha, Sesshomaru, Sango, and Miroku. You guys can sit in the corner and take a break for the rest of the 45 minutes in the period."

"All right!" they shouted.

Inuyasha separated himself from Sesshomaru, Sango, and Miroku. He heard a scream of "Hentai!", and muttered, "He'll never learn…" He ran over to the statue near the gym, and said, "Open." Lowering himself down into the hatch, he jumped down, shutting the hatch above him. There was literally a room full of the most wondrous things for teenagers. Walking over to the fridge, he got himself a Pepsi, and sat down, turning on the TV. After ten minutes of soap operas, he got bored, and remembered a secret place that he never told his friends about. Walking back to the fridge, he pressed a combination of difficult electrical socket combinations, and stood back. Red mist emanated from around the sealed door, and it said, "Identification please."

"Inuyasha Taiyoukai."

"Identification confirmed."

Inuyasha stepped inside the room behind the fridge. It was a room where one could see another's past. He intended on finding out more about Kagome's past. It didn't seem very thorough the way she told it to him in the nurse's room.

"Kagome Higurashi."

The next images Inuyasha saw were so saddening and painful, and he wondered how Kagome could take it. He heard his friends coming down into the hatch, and decided that to see the images better, he would go back into time. Even if he did, he knew that the past was the past, and he could never change it.

Just as he came out of the door behind the fridge, Miroku, Sesshomaru, and Sango plopped into chairs to play video games.

* * *

**With Ayame and Koga**

"And therefore, the culture of the wolves have evolved so much into this time, that we have completely forgotten ourselves," Koga ended. **(OOC…lol O.o)**

Ayame and Koga seemed to be the only ones that knew everything about wolf culture. Their teacher said, "Ayame, Koga. You have detailed comments on wolves that I don't think you even need to take this class anymore. But you guys can help others that are struggling. So why don't you go take a seat on that rock over there, and during Prey Identification, you guys can help."

Koga and Ayame sighed. They were definitely better off taking a fighting class.

"Hey, let's go check out how Kagome's doing," Ayame said.

"Perfect."

* * *

**With Rin**

_The leaves blow around me, and I still can see, what a truuuueee loooovvvee is…_Rin sang. **(Ok, I know that song was pretty crappy, but umm…yea) **She finished, and took a bow. The song was so mesmerizing and heart-warming, that all of the classmates stood up and clapped. The teacher was close to tears.

"Rin, that was lovely…you are at the level where you can blend magic with song." The teacher said, wiping away a tear.

So while the rest of the class was still practicing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", Rin was learning to mix magic into her songs.

* * *

**With Kagome**

"Okay, so that's the end of our lesson about the Shikon Jewel. It's classified as a lost treasure these days. Even now, not many can even describe what it looks like—there have been descriptions about it being sized as a pencil-eraser, or even as the size of an elephant. But the main thing to know about this object for your next test is that it increases the user's powers by a lot. Also, know that it's handed down through generation by generation in miko families—although, there are so many miko families these days, you can't tell who has the real one. Go ahead and spar."

Kagome silently laughed to herself _I wonder if the jewel I carry is the Shikon Jewel…yea right. It's probably just something that my mother really wanted to treasure._

Kagome had been paired up with Kikyou. Both weren't pleased with the assignments, and set out at a killing attitude. Finally, Kagome sent a purplish-pink magic ball spiraling into Kikyou's chest.

"OOF!" Kikyou grunted, with food bits flying off her. She never really properly cleaned herself up after the food fight.

"My goodness, Kagome, you're a natural!" Mr. Kamakushi said. **(I know Kamakushi isn't a last name, but whatever) **"Kikyou, you really need more practice. Where did that little self-defense thing go? And um…why do you have food all over you? Maybe you should take the Maid Manners class to learn to clean yourself up."

Kikyou stared daggers at Kagome. A knocking sounded behind Kagome, and she saw Ayame and Koga waving at her. Kagome turned around fully, leaving her back exposed to Kikyou. The evil girl took the chance to punch Kagome.

Koga saw Kikyou advancing upon Kagome, and frantically pointed behind her. Kagome had already know what was coming even without Koga's pointers. She smiled innocently, and ducked down, just as Kikyou reached out to punch Kagome. The punch broke the glass instead of Kagome's back, and Mr. Kamakushi whipped around.

"Kikyou! I'm very disappointed in you! We should have good sportsmanship here! One-hundred push-ups!"

Kagome smirked. Kikyou couldn't even do one, and the latter was scared of the fact that sweating would make her cheap make-up run.

Kagome seemed to know every move there was in the miko world, and seemed to be better than Mr. Kamakushi himself! _It's gotta be in the genes. If my mother was a miko, then I'm probably a true natural._

* * *

**Free Time**

During free time, the eight friends talked about their day. Inuyasha was the quietest of all. All through that time, he could only see fuzzy images of Naraku starving Kagome so she'd "look pretty", beating her for the littlest reason, treating her little brother better, letting her stand outside in the cold, etc. It was worse than how Kagome described it to him. And somehow, Naraku had blocked the child abuse and emergency hotlines.

"Inu-chan," Kagome nudged. "Why are you so quiet? Is the new moon coming?" She knew that Inuyasha became a human every new moon.

"Oh, it's um…nothing. I'm really tired, I've gotta go to sleep." And so, Inuyasha went straight to bed, with the rest of the gang questioning what could've happened to him.

"That's strange. Normally he kicks butt when he's playing video games…" Miroku said. On his lap, Kirara growled in agreement. Her growl sounded more like a purr, and Sango burst out laughing at how cute it was. Pretty soon, everyone was cracking up for no reason, and they all forgot about Inuyasha.

* * *

**With The Minions**

Deep in the middle of the night, when the entire school was asleep, only Kagura, Kanna, and Kikyou were the ones awake. They were discussing about how to get the Shikon Jewel off Kagome, when Kikyou's cell phone rang again.

Kanna promptly flung the covers of her bed over herself to prepare for the imminent danger…

"COME ON YOU GUYS!" Naraku's voice screamed through the air. "I'M GOING UP TO THAT SCHOOL TO SORT EVERYTHING OUT!"

"Naraku, the girl's just too powerful," Kanna whimpered. "She's a natural at miko class, and her friends apparently are naturals too."

"I DON'T CARE! I'M COMIN' UP THERE!"

And the phone went dead.


	13. The Silver Chair and Dirty Secrets

**Chapter 13: The Silver Chair and Dirty Secrets**

Tick-tock-tick-tock-ti---BANG! Inuyasha mildly cursed to himself as he knocked over the clock. It was three in the morning, and he still hadn't gone to bed. Many thoughts about Kagome's painful life were running through his head, and it was plain annoying. He had to go to that room behind the fridge to get a closer look.

Carefully rising from his bed, he pulled over his lucky red T-shirt, and strapped on his Tetsusaiga. He checked to make sure that Koga, Sesshomaru, and Miroku hadn't awakened. They looked asleep…but Inuyasha couldn't be sure. He decided to do a sleeping test.

For Sesshomaru, he yanked his tail extremely hard, and whispered loudly in his ear, "FLUFFY!" That always ticked him off. But Sesshomaru continued to sleep like a dead person. Moving over to Koga, he whispered, "Ayame is no longer your woman….Kagome is now!" Koga muttered in his sleep, "Ayame, you are the only woman in my heart…" He made a hand motion, which looked like he was holding someone's hand. Then, he rolled over off the bed. KER-PLUNK! Inuyasha rolled his eyes. Ahh….now the tricky Miroku….what would Inuyasha use? Inuyasha thought about groping Miroku's butt, but shuddered at the thought. Rummaging through Miroku's suitcase, he found the swimsuit models of Sports Illustrated. Digging through even more, he found a Victoria's Secret magazine.

"Man, if word of this ever got out…" Inuyasha evilly muttered.

Sticking all the clippings in Miroku's face, he slyly whispered, "The women want you down at the bar…Miroku…" Miroku made a hand motion in his sleep that looked like he was groping someone, and then began to snore.

"Eww…" Inuyasha said. Figuring that all the tests were done, he slid open the window, and jumped down. The gym statue was right next to the dorms, and he was there in no time. Rushing down to the refrigerator, he pushed the electrical sockets again. The same process repeated, and Inuyasha was in the room.

"Silver Chair, Kagome Higurashi," Inuyasha clearly spoke. A silver chair appeared out of no where. Once he sat down, it whizzed him through all time and space…stars were spinning, clock hands were moving backwards….and then…WHAM! He was thrown extremely hard onto the floor. The impact would've killed a regular person.

"Crap…I need seat belts for this thing!" he angrily yelled. He got up, and screamed. There was a huge red stain, about the size of a Mac monitor on the wall. Next to the stain was a door. In peeled, painted block letters on the door, it said KAGOME HIGURASHI.

"So this is her room…" Inuyasha said, still recovering from the shock of seeing so much blood. "I thought she said it was a tiny stain…" He knocked on the door…or well…attempted to knock. Many things happened next. First, his hand went through the door. Second, someone downstairs screamed, "D--- it wench! Get your a—down here!" Third, the door opened, and a younger Kagome about twelve or thirteen passed straight through Inuyasha.

"OMG!" Inuyasha shouted. He rushed after the Kagome, and attempted to hold her back. Again, his hand passed right through her.

"So…it's just a viewing portal, huh? Feh…guess this silver chair only gives a clearer look. Without the chair, I could only see foggy shapes…" Inuyasha thought. A hard WHIP! sound snapped him out of his thoughts. He ran downstairs, and saw a man whipping Kagome.

"You're supposed to be on a diet! And you snuck a piece of sushi out of the fridge!" yelled the man.

"I-I-I…" Kagome whimpered.

"Stop stuttering!"

"NarakuI'msorryIsnuckapieceofsushioutofthefridge! (Naraku I'm sorry I snuck a piece of sushi out of the fridge)" Kagome said all in one breath.

"So that man is Naraku!" Inuyasha yelled. He jumped over to block the next whip coming down, and when it passed through him, he remembered that it wasn't possible to touch anything in this dimension, except stand on the floor.

"Remember! Nothing but water!" Naraku screamed. He bent down to Kagome, and put his hand on her shoulder gently. It seemed so kind at that point in time, that if anyone ignored the belt and scars on Kagome's legs, it would look as if Naraku was being a kind father. "Look Kagome. It's only one more week. One more week." The voice seemed so…so fatherly…Inuyasha was amazed that such a humane voice could belong to such a horrible man. He sighed in relief, but that was short-lived, because Kagome received a huge slap. The imprint was no different from Miroku's hand imprints from Sango.

Inuyasha said, "Next scene." He was honestly getting sick of the abuse, but it was the best he could do to see what he could do to help Kagome. The room whirled around again. BANG!

"DANG! This crap needs seat belts!" Inuyasha roared. But someone else's voice dominated his.

"How dare you spoil my food! I told you not to put shrimp in my sushi, and yet you did! Are you trying to poison me, wench? Sota, your own seven year old brother can do better! Just because it's your birthday doesn't mean I've got to treat you nice!"

"Ooo…that sucks…" Inuyasha said. He was nearly crying from all the abuse that Kagome was suffering. "How the heck does she keep all of this to herself?"

"But daddy," a tiny childish voice interrupted. "I can't prepare food."

Inuyasha looked up, and saw a little boy.

"Ummm…it's O.K. Sota. Go up to bed. I'll tuck you in," Naraku said. "As for you, girl," he snarled, as he turned to Kagome. "Stay in your room for two days. No food, just water. I guess I can trust you enough to only use the bathroom when you come out of your room."

"It's not fair that he should treat only Kagome's brother nicely, and a girl so poorly! Kagome can't be on a diet! She's basically underweight from what I see here. But she probably gained a bit after going to school…" Inuyasha angrily thought again. He remembered hearing Rin admiring Kagome's figures from outside their dorm…

* * *

**Flashback**

"OMG! Kagome! You've got a really fast metabolism!" Rin squealed.

"Dude…do you really have to be looking at me while I change?" Kagome muttered back.

"Oh…sorry…it's just…I'm so jealous of you! I swear! Is dieting hard? Kagome? Umm…are you OK?" Rin faltered.

"No…I didn't go on a diet…I don't even want to talk about this…"

* * *

He would've knocked out Naraku a long time ago, if it wasn't for the fact that his hand passed through everything.

Inuyasha followed Kagome up into her room. He passed through the doors. Kagome was making a phone call to a friend by the name of Eri. Inuyasha heard the entire plan of her escapade. He saw her fiddle around with a jewel…

"Holy cow! That's the Shikon Jewel! That's actually the real deal! It's NOT a fake! Definitely! I'd know it if it was! No wonder Naraku is abusing her! He wants it for himself! Does she even know what she's handling?!" Inuyasha exclaimed.

Wondering what time it was, Inuyasha glanced at his watch…

"Crap! Five-thirty A.M.!" he cursed. "STOP! Bring me back!"

Again, the room whirled. Inuyasha flashed out his Tetsusaiga, and prepared to stick it into the ground to protect himself from impact. But apparently, he was flipped onto his back, and crashed into ground.

"Man…you really hate me, don't you?" Inuyasha groaned to the room.

By the time Inuyasha dragged himself back to the dorm, it was six o'clock. Classes began at 7:30 A.M. Normally, he would be taking a shower in fifteen minutes, and eating breakfast at six-forty-five.

"Screw this…I just won't take a shower today…" Inuyasha mumbled. He fell asleep on the floor, and slept through Miroku's alarm clock, which rang in the next five minutes.

"Ahh…I'm all refreshed!" Koga announced, stretching out. "Why am I on the floor? GAA! Miroku! Why does your alarm clock have to play the Butterfly Remix over and over again?"

"It has other tunes, but it's stuck on Butterfly for some reason…"

"My tail really hurts…and something in my brain bank for the night tells me that someone called me Fluffy. No one can call me Fluffy except for Rin-chan."

"My models! My models! Who took the models out of my pack?" Miroku cried, looking at his suitcase.

Koga and Sesshomaru's expression looked somewhat like this: O.o

"Umm…you had models?" Koga asked.

"Forget about the models. Why is Inuyasha still sleeping? Miroku's alarm clock is the most annoying in the world, and nobody could sleep through that…" Sesshomaru wondered.

"Ahh, well…I call shower first!" Koga yelled.

* * *

**At Breakfast**

"Whoa…you look TER-RI-BLE Inuyasha…" Sango commented.

"Puppy-chan, what's wrong?" Kagome stood up, rushing to his side.

"Ugg…I know the day dream seat is yours today, Ayame, but I really need it today…" Inuyasha yawned. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his hair was sticking up all over the place.

"Heck, you didn't even have to ask me!" Ayame said. "I would have just given it to you!"

Rin was brushing Inuyasha's hair, and very softly singing a calming spell. Inuyasha dozed while she did, and with the spell, the dark circles disappeared.

"There you go, Inu. At least you don't look that horrible now. Go get some breakfast." Rin said.

While Inuyasha ran off to get breakfast, Kagome whispered, "Sessh! Did Inu do anything funky last night?"

"Yash? I'm not so sure. I was more deader like a rock yesterday."

"Maybe he did!" Rin huffed, gently slapping Sesshomaru's head. "Baka! Your English grammar sucks this morning! And we have a test in that subject too!"

"What about you Koga?" Sango asked.

"Hmm…I'm not so sure either."

"I might know…" Miroku offered. "I went to the bathroom at four in the morning, and well…Inuyasha wasn't there. The window was open though. I think he went down to the room to improve his gaming skills."

Ayame laughed heartily at that, and soon Rin joined in. Then, the entire table started to crack up with laughter.

After quite some time however, a small silence passed. Everybody looked at each other, and said, "No. He didn't."

* * *

**During Free Time**

"Hey guys, I think I'm gonna go to bed ear---" Inuyasha started.

"Heck no!" Ayame screamed, pouncing on him. Sango, Miroku, and the rest tackled him. Inuyasha struggled, and then Kagome shot the silver bullet: she rubbed his ears. He instantly stopped fidgeting. Koga slapped him.

"OK man…tell us where you went! Our window was open!" he yelled.

"If you were the one who took all my models out…" Miroku half-threatened, but was knocked out unconscious by Sango.

Inuyasha sighed. He was trapped. "Fine…you guys aren't gonna like it…especially Kagome…"

As he explained, his friends' faces ranged from shocked, tearful, angry, and a load of other expressions. Kagome's face remained a rain cloud the entire time.

"You MUTT-FACE HANYOU!" she screamed. She stormed off to her dorm.

"Gosh, Inu! Don't make Kagome so angry!" Rin screeched.

Sango and Ayame stormed off too.

"Girls…" Inuyasha muttered.

Sesshomaru angrily said, "You hurt my feelings, Yash!"

Miroku like this according to Sesshomaru's reaction: O.o

Koga sighed, and said, "Well…it's over now."

"Sorry man…I really cared about Kagome…I wanted to know why she suffered so badly…" Inuyasha muttered.

"It's OK," Miroku, Koga, and Sesshomaru said, patting their friend's back. "They should get over it pretty quickly…"

* * *

**With the Girls**

"No way…I thought you said that the stain was barely visible!" Sango said.

"Huh…well…I lied. I didn't know you guys very well then, did I?" Kagome said.

"Well…you can trust us, always. We may not be as great friends as Eri was, but at least you can trust us…" Rin said.

"Anything that goes between us, mum's the word. Otherwise, pain of death…" Ayame said.

"You're not serious, right?" Sango asked.

"I'm perfectly serious. It's a famous wolf motto." Ayame said.

"I think we should all go to bed. I'm sorry about the time I asked whether you were on a diet…" Rin said.

"I'm sorry, guys…" Kagome said.

"It's OK. We're not mad at you. We're mad that Inuyasha invaded your privacy." Sango said.

Kagome had no comment. She was thinking _I never thought I actually possessed It. It. If I have the Shikon Jewel…I may not be a natural at miko class…_

* * *

**In the Teenager Room**

"So why are we here again?" Miroku asked.

"I'm setting up an account for the room behind the fridge for all of you guys. And the girls too. That's why we brought recording picture frames. It's got our girlfriend's voices." Inuyasha explained again. "OK, Sessh. You can go first."

"Why me?"

"OK…crybaby Fluffy…" Inuyasha muttered. "Koga, you can go first."

Inuyasha pressed a few buttons on the electrical socket. It said, "Name please."

"Koga Roukyou."

"Voice sample please."

"My name is Koga Roukyou."

"Thank you."

And that was the process for the rest of the accounts. Sesshomaru had gotten a soda out of the fridge, and said, "Hey, I wanna try to close it!"

Eyeing the condensation on Sesshomaru's fingers, Miroku wisely said, "Best that you don't, Sesshy." His warning came a little late. It was lucky that the room was soundproof, and that there was a fire extinguisher, because Sesshomaru's tale caught on fire and an earsplitting scream issued.


	14. The Birthday Theorem

**Chapter 14: The Birthday Theorem**

All through breakfast, Kagome ignored Inuyasha, despite his attempts to talk to her. She had left the Shikon Jewel in a safe place in her room to make sure that she was a true natural in Miko class. The coldness toward had not melted all through their other classes too. During Miko class, Kagome lightened up a bit, as it was her favorite class, and paid more attention.

"Good morning class!" Mr. Kamakushi greeted.

"Good morning Kamakushi-sensei."

Since the beginning was all review, Kagome had fun looking into Kikyou's mind. It was a skill that she had learned out of stealing the teacher's book for a week. It was amusing what Kikyou was thinking, as she was painting her nails, because all she thought was about boys, and revenge on Kagome.

But out of the teacher's book, which was far far far more advanced than their regular studies book, Kagome learned how to call spirits to help in combat (Spirit Fight), how to produce a shield that can't be penetrated (Eternal Shield) as long as strength persists, and many other techniques. She was a quick learner, and soon learned all the spells inside. Except, today's lesson wasn't in the book…

"Now class…there are many theorems in the world of mikos. Not all of them appear in yours, or my textbook. The Birthday Theorem is one of them, although it is rare for it to ever to happen.

"This theorem was founded by Midoriko, and her last name is unknown. She is the founder of the school, and was supposed to possess the Shikon Jewel, which increases powers by 10 fold."

Kagome thought _Go mom!_

The teacher continued, "In this theorem, if two people have exactly the same birthday, including the time with no margin of error, and year, they can call on each other psychically. Their powers increase by 2 fold. If three people have the same birthday, they can communicate among each other mentally, powers increase by 3 fold, and they can think of what others are thinking of. Now if 4 people have the same birthday, they can communicate mentally, powers increase by 10 fold, they can think what others are thinking of, and they have the special ability to talk in languages of animals, such as mononokes, or others. However, even if there are more people, which is close to impossible, the limitation of power only goes up to 4 people. That means, even if you had a thousand people use the birthday theorem, their powers can only go up to 10 fold. Any questions?"

Kagome raised her hand, and asked, "Are there any severe disadvantages to using this theorem?"

"Ahh, I was waiting for someone to ask that!" Kamakushi-sensei gushed. He carried on, "1. You can't physically speak at all while using the theorem. All communications are carried on with telepathy. 2. Energy is depleted after using this, and the drawbacks are worse as there are more and more people. So even though your powers go only up to 10 fold, as long as there are a thousand people, the stamina drawback will be more than if there were only four people using the theorem."

Kagome was making large checkmarks of all of what her teacher was saying. More than half the class had already fallen asleep because they had no idea what this was talking about.

"Plus, just wanting to talk with someone with the theorem doesn't mean that they want to talk with you. It's the same as with a telephone call. One will hear a small sensation that someone wishes to talk, but he or she can choose whether or not to answer the call. Lastly, the powers you have are based on the amount of skill you have. If you don't have the stamina for 10 fold power, the power won't do you any good—you'll end up hurting yourself. Any other questions, Kagome? You seem quite interested in this subject…"

Kagome shook her head.

"Let's begin to spar."

* * *

After class, and beating Kikyou black and blue, Kagome rushed to her dorm, and explained the theorem to Rin, Sango, and Ayame.

"Holy crap…are you serious?" Ayame questioned.

"Heck yea, wanna try it out?" Kagome asked.

"Yes!" Sango and Rin screamed with delight.

"OK, I'll start out with Ayame first. Ready?" Kagome asked.

"Yup!"

Kagome closed her eyes, and stretched her mind out to Ayame. It felt as if her soul was knocking on the door of Ayame's brain. _Hey, can you speak up?_

_Yea, I'm here! I'm gonna lift the bed._

Both girls started lifting the beds like one-pound weights.

_Hey, we're joining in! _Rin thought.

_How are you right now, Kirara? _Sango asked, silently

_Not so bad…_the mononoke replied. _I've known this theorem ever since. I must tell you all that this mental communication is like a radio. Static may disturb the frequency. When distance is put between you, it will be harder to communicate. Just so you know…I don't believe the teacher told Kagome that…human teachers are so lame…_

The four girls continued lifting the drawers like they were feathers. They giggled silently, as they could not speak aloud as long as they were speaking mentally. Finally, they stopped the theorem, and were stunned.

"Whoa…that was cool…" Ayame said.

"Well, that was a workout!" Sango panted.

Kagome thought, _Good, so I'm a natural at miko powers, I could use the Shikon Jewel to my advantage, and it was overall a perfect day today!_

A knock on the door startled them. Rin rushed to open the door.

"Fluffy-chan!"

"Hey Rin! Hey girls!"

"What's up, Sessh?" Kagome asked.

"We're gonna play an oober prank on Kikyou on Halloween, which is about 2 months from now. We picked the lock on her dorm, and it said so on the calendar. We're gonna trash it up. Wanna come?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Heck yea!" Rin, Sango, and Ayame screamed.

"I'm not going as long as that mutt is going!" Kagome huffed. Silence issued.

"Then, well…I guess you could be the guard…" Sesshomaru whispered. He left the room.

Suddenly, Kirara jumped and hissed at the open window. Ayame grabbed onto her tail, just before she jumped out.

"Kirara! Don't!" Sango cried. She shut the window. The girls would have communicated with Kirara again, except that the theorem drained so much energy out of them.

"It must've just been an owl or something." Kagome said.

Down below in the bushes, a man with a monkey mask muttered, "Good, they fell for it."


	15. The Bad Boy Enters

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Inuyasha, nor do I own Mean Girls (as in previous references) But I DO OWN the character Sokashi Rukitama.**

**Chapter 15: The Bad Boy Enters**

Security guard Sokashi Rukitama **(Ok, these names are fake, but yea…)** was having the time of his life. So far, this entire day, no cars had come into the school, and he didn't have to check anyone's ID. That was just code for being able to completely sit back and relax in a comfortable position for long periods of time, watching soap operas on the portable TV. He dozed off for a while.

A man in a monkey mask type thing jumped the fence, and strode past the security window. He, however, did not land so softly, and Sokashi, with an acute sense of hearing, woke up.

"Excuse me, sir, but I need to check your ID," Sokashi professionally stated.

"ID's my—," the man said.

"Please sir, I need to check your ID. This is County Law and the school's policy."

"Screw you and whatever policy exists! _I _need to pick up my daughter, Kagome Higurashi."

"No, I'm sorry. Before I can…"

Rukitama fell over in a heap. The last thing he saw before slipping unconscious was the man's hand giving off sparks like magic from his hand. Once he awoke, he would not remember this incident, and would still go on in his boring life as a security guard.

* * *

Math class was pandemonium. Bankotsu Sansu had not arrived on time, and it was already a good fifteen minutes into the period. Sesshomaru had accidentally brought his Tessaiga along with him, and was giving random squashed bugs life again, until Rin stopped him. Kagome was doing a good job of ignoring Inuyasha, and was discussing the Birthday Theorem with her friends.

"No, seriously!" Sango wailed. "When we communicated this morning, Kirara said she was sick of cat food!" **(Thanx to Hearii-sama for this idea!)**

"Dream on, Sango…" Ayame muttered. "I'm not giving that youkai any of my food! Share your own food!"

"Well…no comment here." Kagome and Rin added.

Inuyasha was consistently trying to grab Kagome's attention, but whenever she looked at him, it seemed as if she didn't see him at all.

"Hey, Sessh! Stop giving random dead bugs life! We discussed that on the car with Mr. Bonze!"

"Oh yea…right. Hey, Yash! You figure we can grab the whole class's attention by killing someone, and then bringing them back to life with my Tessaiga?"

Koga put his two-cent's worth, "Go for it! Let's kill Kanna or Kagura or something. Maybe not Kikyou though…that's a land mine waiting to blow up."

"You sure?" Miroku questioned. "Such lovely ladies shouldn't…" He fell to the floor, slapped by Sango.

Inuyasha had different ideas. "Well wouldn't it be fun to test the land mine then, huh, Koga?" He smiled and sauntered up to Kikyou. Koga, Miroku, and Sesshomaru hurriedly turned their backs, and Sesshomaru began to give dead bugs life again. Inuyasha placed his hands on her shoulder, and whispered, "Hey, baby…"

Kikyou looked up, and smiled. "Inuyasha, I never would've thought you'd come back to me!"

Kagome looked up. Soon, her face matched the color of her skirt, green with jealousy, but turned red with shock when Inuyasha literally sliced the brains out of Kikyou. The entire class's jaws hit the floor, and the entire classroom shook with the impact of human bone against concrete. Kanna and Kagura were too scared to do anything else. Instead, Kanna turned whiter than she normally was, and fell backwards almost dead from shock.

"No need to worry, fellas!" Sesshomaru cried pompously. "Tessaiga's here!"

With a wave of his sword, he brought Kanna back to life, and Kikyou, who was not looking too pleased with blood all over her super short mini skirt.

"Heeeeyyy…check it out!" Koga smirked. "Kikyou's PMSing!"

The class laughed so hard, they were crying. Suddenly, the laughter died down instantly. Bankotsu Sansu had just walked through the door, along with a man Kagome wished she would never meet again.

"_Ohayo_, Brainle—we mean Bankotsu," the class greeted, while bowing. They scurried back to their seats.

"Good morning class!" Bankotsu cheerily greeted, unaware of the fact that he was nearly called Brainless Bankotsu. "I've got an assistant to teach along side with me today! I was meeting with him in the teacher's lounge, so I was late. _Gomen_. His name is Karanu-sensei from Tokyo College."

Something was weird about Bankotsu today. His eyes seemed just slightly out of focus, and his voice was a little high.

_Oh no…_Kagome thought, silently panicking. _He replaced a few memories in Bankotsu's brain…it's a spell…a forbidden miko spell…oh no…He's here…_

"Ohayo, Karanu-sensei-from-Tokyo-College," the class repeated, treating the "from Tokyo College" part as his name too.

Anime anger marks popped over Naraku, but he cooled himself. "My name is just Karanu-sensei. NOTHING ELSE!" he barked. The class freaked out. He smiled serenely. The class sweatdropped. He continued, "Before class begins, I would like the girl with blood all over her skirt to change, and I want to make a few seat arrangements."

Kikyo promptly left the room, listening to Naraku's orders.

Naraku then pointed to Kagome, and motioned for her to sit up right in front of him. He hissed only loud enough for her to hear, "You thought I wouldn't find you, wench?"

Later, he moved Sango, Miroku, Rin, Fluffy, Koga, and Ayame way apart from each other. Then he continued on with the lesson.

* * *

During free time, Kagome fell during Inuyasha's arms. Everyone else was literally the same too. They collapsed on the beds.

"OMFG…" Miroku muttered. "That's your step-dad? Does he even have teaching credentials?"

"Yup…that's my dear old step-daddy…" Kagome replied, soothed by the warmth in Inuyasha's shirt. She had been so scared about Naraku's arrival, that she actually cracked down during lunch, sobbing furiously into her boyfriend's shirt. She had apologized to him, and they made up afterwards. "I'm actually surprised that he dressed so formally. In parent-teacher conferences, his hair would be all dirty, and he'd be in some tattered rags. My teachers seriously doubted whether he was a hobo or my dad."

"That sucks…" Ayame whimpered. "I still can't believe that although we're the best students, he made us do 50 extra problems, and run around the whole school 20 times!"

"Feh…And he let that idiot Kikyou go early too…" Inuyasha muttered.

"Yea, we had to use locker transportation **(Thank you, Rupali-m!)** to get back here…otherwise, we would've fainted dead away…" Koga commented.

"Kagome…you said your mother died from radiation, and told you to protect the Shikon Jewel with your might, correct?" Sango asked.

"Yes…I don't want to die from radiation! He's gonna kill me with it for sitting me right in front of him! And I bet he's going after the Jewel! Jeez…Someone must really hate me! I escape, and then get tracked down again…"

Rin began singing a calming spell. Everyone relaxed. She stopped, and said, "Kagome, conjure a blocking spell. If I sing something, and it combines with it, maybe you can block his radiation!"

The two began. Rin sang of Apollo, and Kagome concentrated on her blocking spell. The red and green light did not mix at first, but with harder concentration, they blended, covering everyone in the room.

"Well…it looks like everyone got some of the spell stuff on them…" Sesshomaru commented. Silence issued.

"He's purposely tiring us out…" Kagome said. "There's something behind this, and I don't like it…OH CRAP! What happened with Sota!"

Inuyasha sprang to the phone, and dialed Kagome's house number before she could protest anything that was risky or whatnot.

Ring! Ring! Ri—"Hello?" a childish voice picked up.

"Sota! Are you there!" Kagome yelled right into the mouthpiece after grabbing the device from Inuyasha.

"Hi nee-san! I'm fine. Otou-san said he was leaving, and he'd return soon. How's school?"

Kagome took a deep breath. Good…Sota was fine so far. Her voice shook as she spoke, "Sota. Go to Eri's house, or Ayumi's, or Yuka's. It doesn't matter which. And stay there! Do you understand?"

"Umm…OK…I'll go over to Eri's…"

"Whatever you do, don't go back to the house again! Bring all you need, and bring Buyo with you too. Naraku's up to no good…he's at MY SCHOOL FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!" Kagome screamed the last part.

"OK, OK! I'm packing up now!" Sota cried.

Kagome hung up the phone, and held her hands in her head. All she could do was weep. How could Naraku, the last man she ever wanted to meet, appear just randomly in her school? As her friends comforted her, she checked out the calendar: exactly 10 days until the prank on Kikyou's dorm.


	16. The Fateful Prank

**Chapter 16: The Fateful Prank**

Ten…Five…Three…Today…Kagome counted the days as fast as the autumn leaves of October were whirling around in the fall breeze. Today, on Halloween, the prank on Kikyou would be played.

Currently, Kagome was daydreaming in Miko class. The days had passed by with much flourish…A wild food fight chase, killing and resurrecting Kikyou, and so much more….

* * *

**Food Fight Fury**

"Dang it! Miroku, run faster!" Inuyasha screamed, pushing his friend forward. A clump of hair narrowly missed his shoulder.

"Mrs. Takahashi told me to catch the perpetrators behind the food fight, Taiyoukai!" a girl with short black hair shouted behind the escapees. Since the food fight had been too severe, the mess of students ended up blocking all trap doors. Then, because there were no escape routes, Inuyasha and his friends ended up running for the sake of not getting a detention.

"Come off of it, Yura! You're…you're more beautiful than my girlfriend Sango!" Miroku feinted, trying to sway Yura of the Hair. Next to the eight friends, Yura was Mrs. Takahashi's second favorite student, being able to manipulate hairstyles. She was a cat demon, but she always appeared human due to a mutation in her genes. **(I hope you guys know that I made that up…) **It was rumored that Yura did Mrs. Takahashi's hair every morning.

"What was that you lecher!" Sango yelled around the corner, slapping Miroku. Thankfully, it wasn't hard enough to make him unconscious, as that would have been extremely inconvenient in this situation. Kagome was running alongside with her.

There were four forks in the pathway, and when the eight friends met up in the center of the Quad, they suddenly turned on Yura. Kagome blasted a ball of sky blue energy toward Yura. Once it connected, Yura fell backwards on her bottom. The friends continued their escapade.

"What's going to happen to her?" Koga asked, panting.

"Oh, nothing!" Kagome nonchalantly said. "She'll just find that she's lost her memory of chasing us…and she'll find she's got a huge hairball!"

* * *

**Math Class Massacre**

"And so, Ladies and Gentlemen, we come back to the killing of Kikyou Yogensha once again!" Inuyasha announced. He had his hand around Kikyou's hair, and was tugging it unmercifully. Kikyou was gagged, and her eyes spelled murder.

"Koga, bring up the victim's fresh clothing!" Miroku played along. Koga brought up a new skirt and sailor fuku top. Inuyasha sliced open Kikyou's head again and again, and Sesshomaru just continued to bring her back to life again and again and again. And Kikyou had to change clothing again and again and again. Thankfully, she had the mercy of being able to change behind a curtain… again and again and again.

As for punishment for this (if they ever got caught), Naraku continued to give extra problems and P.E. education to the eight again and again and again.

And since the eight were basically too tired to walk back to the dorms, they had to use locker transportation again and again and again and again…

* * *

**The Day of the Prank**

Sango, Sesshomaru, Inuyasha, and Miroku were sparing each other in their Weapons Class. Kagura and Kanna were close by, deeply engaged in conversation. Once in a while, Irino-Sensei would pair them off with one of the four to fight. Kagura and Kanna always lost.

"Ms. Irino!" Kanna called. "May I go to the bathroom? It's an emergency!"

"May I go too?" Kagura added on.

"Sure, go ahead!" Ms. Irino said. She was busy trying to fix some poor child's maneuvering on his sword.

Kanna and Kagura glanced at each other, and hurried off to the bathroom.

"Hmm…" Sesshomaru wondered. "Kanna and Kagura NEVER go to the bathroom together even though they're cousins…"

"Yea, you're right…" Inuyasha agreed.

"You think it would have something to do with today's…thing?" Miroku asked.

"I hope not…I really hope not…" Sango repeated, suddenly feeling an unexplained shudder. She was worried for Kagome, and she didn't know why. Kanna and Kagura never came back to class, and Irino-Sensei never noticed.

In Miko Class, Kagome was delving into Kikyou's mind, something she had learned from the teacher's book. All she really found was Kikyou thinking about how to get Inuyasha back, and apparently a date she was going to have with Bankotsu next week. Kagome rolled her eyes, muttered that Kikyou was a slut under her breath, and stopped prying in. She just missed the next thought that crossed Kikyou's mind…

Kikyou's cell phone suddenly rang. She stopped painting her nails and picked it up. Her eyes froze as she glanced at her watch, and grabbing all her things, ran out the door.

"Kikyou!" Mr. Kamakushi yelled. "Where do you think you're going!? I know it's Friday, but you can't just leave like that! Oh…she's gone…Ah well…"

Kagome thought it was odd, but just thought, _Probably was late for her makeover for her ugly face…_

At four, the eight met in front of Kikyou's dorm. Ayame and Rin made sure their victims were long gone off campus before meeting.

"Ok, who's guard?" Sango asked, heaving huge rolls of toilet paper in her hand.

"Umm…that's a good question…" Rin muttered. She was having difficulty balancing jars of honey…the oober sticky kind. "I'll do it if—"

"I'll do it," Kagome volunteered. "I think I'll be fine. I mean, the Shikon no Tama is safe with me. It'll be a good luck charm."

With that problem solved, Koga went right ahead to picking the lock. In just a few seconds, a click sound indicated that the lock was clear.

"Wouldn't there be security in their room?" Ayame questioned.

"Ahh….true," Inuyasha commented, swinging open the door. Kagome was surprised to see that the security was poor. Although there were trip wires, the button to deactivate the trip wires was right next to the door.

"That's…dumb…" Sango plainly said.

"Yup. Our security is the most advanced…considering we know every single inch of the school," Miroku answered, moving his hand toward Sango. She threw up the toilet paper, whacked Miroku across his head with her hand, and caught all the toilet paper rolls.

"And you seem to know every inch of my body!"

"Stop wasting time. Everyone, let's go in. Kagome, you stay guard," Sesshomaru commanded.

The friends began to file inside. Inuyasha was the last one in. Before he went in, he turned to Kagome, and kissed her. She was surprised, but closed her eyes. When the couple broke apart, Inuyasha whispered, "Please, Kagome…be careful—"

"Hey, Yash! Are you just going to stand there talking to your woman all day?" Koga hissed.

Inuyasha looked back at Kagome, and shut the door.

* * *

Meanwhile, with Kikyou, she was prattling about Bankotsu, "Oh. My. Gosh! He's like, the hottest, like, guy in the world!"

Kanna and Kagura were sweatdropping at this. They were going Trick-Or-Treating because they really had nothing else to do that night. Naraku also wanted them clear of the dorms. Kanna butted in, "You think they fell for it?"

Kagura answered, "I'm sure they did. Kagome's the guard. Naraku knocked out the security guard again, and hijacked the cameras. Later, we're going to go in and kidnap the girl."

* * *

"MIROKU! Be careful with the toilet paper and honey! Don't knock down the paint!" Sesshomaru screeched. "I need enough to make a masterpiece on the walls!"

"Jeez, SORRY! It's hard having to apply honey on the walls with only a dinky paintbrush! Besides, who bought all this crap?"

"I did!" Ayame proudly beamed, stopping from cutting holes in her rivals' skirts. "I managed to charge all the money to Kikyou's credit card bill!"

"Brilliant!" Rin childishly laughed. She ransacked the drawers with Sango. "HEY! It's the brooch my mom gave to me! Why is it in here?"

Sango and Ayame rushed over. They discovered a load of trinkets stolen from them.

"Hmm…Kanna must've been using her mirror to steal them from us….she stole my hairband! And Ayame's crystal amethyst iris!" Sango exclaimed.

"What's so good about your hairband?" Rin asked. "I thought you said that thing was cheap and dumpy!"

"Oh, no! That's the one I'm wearing now!" Sango explained, pointing to the pink and black one in her hair. "The one that Kanna stole is inlaid with pearls and diamonds, and…"

Rin and Ayame were gaping at Sango.

"Nevermind…"

"Hey, Sesshy! That's a great masterpiece there!" Inuyasha sarcastically said. Sesshomaru was painting Kikyou and her roommates in stick figures with swirly eyes. "Totally reminds me of that time two years ago!"

"Shut the heck up…"

A slight knocking on the door indicated that Kagome wanted was warning them. The room fell silent.

"Umm…uh, hey, Kikyou!" Koga fakely announced. "How…Uh…are you today?"

"Oh, I'm, like, so, like, fine!" Miroku closely imitated Kikyou. "Like, Oh. My. God. I got back together with Inuyasha! Right, baby?"

"Oh, yea. We're so happy together!" Inuyasha rolled his eyes while saying so. He muttered, "You pervert…how would you know how to imitate girls' voices…"

Another knock at the door indicated that all was well. Sango peered outside. Kagome flashed the peace sign, and said, "Ms. Takahashi was passing by, and wondered what the fuss was all about. She listened in to your conversation, and was happy about the fake story that we were getting along with Kikyou…"

Ayame made a fake barfing sound, and Rin began to gag.

Back inside, with Kagome on watch again, Miroku said, "Hey, does anyone know the story about Sessh and Yash?"

"What story?" Koga asked.

"Ahh….then you don't know…" Sesshomaru muttered. He later tacked on, "And you don't wanna know…"

"Of course I do, FLUFFY…." Koga agitated the problem.

"Ok…Ok…Well…two years ago…" Inuyasha began the story.

* * *

**Flashback**

"Wassup, Dog?" Jaken asked, swaggering over to Sesshomaru. He was sagging so severely, it was safe to say that if Jaken wasn't wearing pants, it really wouldn't matter. He had a baggy, oversized black shirt on that said _I'm a Bad Mother F-----_, and loads of gangster chains on.

"'Sup Jaken?" Sesshomaru replied. He too, swaggered toward his homey, and gave him a hi-five. He was dressed the same way as Jaken. Thankfully, his tail covered up his underwear. "Ya know tat bridge over by teh freeway? Ya tat one? Well, I'm gonna spray paint so down, ya know, and frame ma bro for doin' that"

"Brilliant…And it's a new moon too, so he'll be at home…"

That night, Jaken and Sesshomaru sauntered over to the bridge. Wrapping his tail around the railing, Sesshomaru lowered himself down. He began his job. Jaken would make sure that Sesshomaru didn't fall, and would keep guard.

"Whew…least I got…"

"HOLY S---! Hey, dog, is that your bro?"

Sesshomaru let go from shock, and fell straight through a manhole. SPLASH! He soon found himself covered in muck, and facing his half brother.

"Y-Yashy? What're you doin' here?" Sesshomaru asked, shocked.

"S-Sessh? What the heck are you doing here?" Inuyasha replied.

Jaken had stupidly called the police, and the authorities discovered that Sesshomaru and Inuyasha had been faking that they had parents, when they were orphans. Since they were too young to go to jail, the police decided to ship them off to Shake-it-Out Boarding School, a boot camp to straighten out juvenile delinquents. However, someone had juggled the files, and they ended up going to Shikon Boarding School instead…

* * *

"And so, that's how we met our good friends Miroku and Koga here…" Sesshomaru finished. "Thank Kami that Miroku's dad took us in. Mr. Bonze saw us at orientation day looking extremely shabby, and he felt that it was his life mission or something to correct us. Otherwise, we'd still be at some foster home, eating gruel with cockroaches, or whatever…"

"Yea, and thank Kami that Sesshomaru's behavior straightened out…" Inuyasha added on.

Outside, Kagome was close to dying of laughter. It was hard to imagine Sesshomaru gangster style. She finally stopped, and got bored. She brought Kirara out of her dorm to play. Using the Jewel, she was letting Kirara bat at it to play.

Suddenly, Kirara jumped up, and all her hair stood on one end. She turned into full form.

"Kirara! Stop that!" Kagome shouted. She attempted to reach Ayame, Rin, and Sango with her mind so she could communicate, but since she hadn't truly practiced the Birthday Theorem all that thoroughly, she couldn't get through the wall. "Shoot!"

Somebody invisible suddenly punched her. Kagome had the wind knocked out of her. She was gagged, and Kirara disappeared out of the air.

"Ahh…so we meet again…wench…" Naraku's voice snaked out of the air. "Now, hand over what we want, and we'll let you go…" He briefly let the gag out of Kagome's mouth so she could speak.

"NN—" Kagome started to scream, but Naraku just jammed the rag in her mouth again.

Kikyou, Kanna, and Kagura materialized out of the air. Kagura was holding Kirara, who was in her kitten form, and calmly purring.

"K-Kirara!"

Kirara only hissed at Kagome.

"She's ours now…" Kagura whispered.

Kagome finally understood. They had all been led into a trap. The four evil people had purposely set up a poor security, they purposely marked Halloween Day blank on the calendar, and Kikyou had purposely left Miko class for this reason. They wanted her for the Jewel.

Kagome began to kick, putting cracks in the walls. She prayed and prayed that her friends would have noticed, but through all the noise, she heard people laughing, something inside the dorm going BANG BANG BANG, and figured that either one of her friends was cracking the windows with a baseball bat, the ladder to stick toilet paper to the ceiling had fallen, Miroku had been hit over the head with a boomerang, or maybe even all!

Kanna whipped out her mirror, and began the Memories Gust technique. Naraku had forced Kagome's eyes open. Although Kagome was looking at her painful past, and although Kagura had waved her with the fan, she didn't feel as bad as before. Kagome made the mistake of looking at the Shikon Jewel at the floor, which was touching her shoe.

"So, this is what's making her immune…" Kikyou muttered, picking up the Jewel. "Kanna, Kagura, do it again…"

"No, don't—" Naraku started, but Kanna and Kagura had already started Memories Gust again. The past two experiences with the attack had already built Kagome up for this, and she didn't collapse.

"WHAT THE HECK!" Naraku shouted. He was lucky that the seven friends inside the dorm were laughing at that moment. "Now this wench is immune to that attack!"

Inside the dorm, the five outside could hear Rin say, "Hey, let's go out to dinner or something."

Cursing, Naraku grabbed Kagome, and motioned his associates to follow him. Running to the end of the hallway, he changed the material of the wall, and passed through it. The three other teens followed.

Just then, Ayame opened the door, laughing. Miroku had been hit with Sango's Hiraikotsu, Koga had been breaking the windows with Kikyou's prissy lamp, and on top of that, their ladder had fallen down on Sesshomaru. She turned to find Kagome.

"Hey, Kagome, we're going out to…Holy…INUYASHA!" Ayame screamed.

"What happened!" Inuyasha shouted back, running up to the door. He took one glance at the cracks in the wall, and nearly collapsed.

His friends gathered up at the door, and Sango weakly said, "I should've known something was wrong with Kanna and Kagura today…"


	17. Where the Heck is Kagome?

**Chapter 17: Where the Heck is Kagome!?**

"W. T. F…" Rin mouthed, gaping at the damage.

"Th-that's a strong woman you've got, Yash…" Koga whispered.

Inuyasha suddenly tore down the hallway, and ran out of the dorm complex. His friends tried to catch up to his speed. Outside, it was all dark…

"Shoot," Inuyasha cursed, while looking at the sky from under a tree. "It's just gotta be dark when I need to find my way around the school…Screw this!"

He ran under the overpasses to the secret teenage room. Opening the hatch, he jumped down and bolted to the fridge.

"OI! INUYASHA! HOLD UP!" Sessh shouted. He latched onto Inuyasha, and restrained him. Koga also pounced on his vengeful friend. Inuyasha was fighting against both of his companions' grasps.

"Stop, Sesshomaru! Get off, Mangy WOLF! Let me go! I need to find out where Kagome is! She's got the Shikon on her! And Kirara's missing!"

Sango, who had just jumped into the room, paused, and tearfully cracked out, "Kirara is…missing?"

"Hai…" Rin replied. "I checked in the dorm. Kirara's gone."

While Sesshomaru and Koga restrained Inuyasha from using the Silver Chair within the room, Miroku was thinking deeply, but fast. First, he wanted to find out what happened to Kagome as badly as everyone did. Second, he did not want Sango to cry. Third, he figured something about tonight was strange. Okay, sure, the prank and Kagome's disappearance was weird, if not downright scary…but there was something else. And Inuyasha's mind was going crazy, but that wasn't the point…maybe something else with Inuyasha? Fourth, Miroku made his decision, and strode over to the electrical sockets, pushed the code, and the identification process began. He stepped into the room.

Inuyasha, seeing that the room was open, used that as his motivation to break free. Seeing that there was no choice left, Koga and Sesshomaru followed Inuyasha. The girls, although never having seen the room, followed the guys, and imitated their actions. Soon, everyone was inside the secret room.

"Umm…what's this place?" Ayame asked, scratching her auburn hair.

Her question was more directed towards Inuyasha, but he did not answer. Instead he had said, "Silver Chair."

A silver chair like the one he had used to look into Kagome's past appeared. Then, Inuyasha, in his half-crazed distressed form, stumbled over to it, and began to look intensely for something.

Sango, her temper fuse blowing, ran up to Inuyasha, and slapped him….hard….harder than all those times she ever slapped Miroku.

"INUYASHA! THINK STRAIGHT! SNAP OUT OF IT! TELL ME WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED IN THESE PAST HOURS!"

Everyone's faces turned into this: O.o; NO BODY **(I put the space there on purpose) **in the universe had ever seen Sango this mad before. Inuyasha began to calm down a lot, and the mad man look in his eyes disappeared.

"OK…" Inuyasha started. "We wanted to play a prank on Kikyou, it backfired, and Kagome got kidnapped."

Seeing the look on Sango's face, Inuyasha quickly added, "And Kirara also got kidnapped too…"

He was relieved to see Sango cool down a lot.

Rin butted in, "Inuyasha? What are you looking for on that chair?"

"There's a button that should supposedly turn this giant hunk of metal into a bench, but I can't find it…"

All the friends immediately dropped down on all fours and began looking on the chair. Sesshomaru's tail accidentally knocked Koga's head into a chair leg. The chair fell, and Koga grasped the chair's foot for support.

"You _baka_, Sessh!" Koga forcefully said, just as the chair turned into a bench. "Umm….nevermind…."

Taking their places on the bench **(I want to thank blueteal1995 for this idea of the bench! I dunno if that person still reads this story, but I need to still give credit! )**, Inuyasha suddenly got up, and shouted, "Wait!"

"For what?" Ayame asked.

"Past Glasses!"

"Pass gasses?" Miroku asked incredulously. "I don't think we want to do that here in the middle of this cramped room…"

POW! Sango's fist collided with Miroku's jaw. "And I don't think we should be violating people in this cramped room either!"

Ignoring that little scene between his friends, Inuyasha plucked glasses out of the air.

"What are we going to do with these?" Sango wondered out loud.

"Good question. We're going to use these glasses to help save Kagome. But there's only one pair…" Inuyasha explained, faltering at the end.

"I can sing…" Rin offered. "I learned that if one sings the correct spells to an object, the desired object may divide into as many times as needed, all the same size! But the density will be thinner…"

"No problem!" Koga announced. "Go ahead and start!"

Once all seven were comfortable in the bench with glasses on, Inuyasha called out, "The prank's time."

Nothing happened. Sesshomaru got out examining the bench, and Rin hastily said, "Fluffy-chan! Sit back—"

Strong winds spun the bench, and Koga and Rin grasped Sesshomaru's tail in their hands. It ended up that Sesshomaru was dangling from his friend's hands through the five second ride. At the end of five seconds, WHUMP! They found themselves stacked in a pile. Sesshomaru was on the bottom, with Inuyasha and Koga next, respectively. Ayame was face down in Koga's chest, with Rin and Sango on top of Ayame. Sango had the sense that Miroku would end up on top of her, and rolled off the pile quickly. BUMP! Miroku ended up on Rin instead.

No one said anything for a second but voices of the seven started up.

"Itai…" Sesshomaru grunted. **(Itai means "ouch" in Japanese)**

"GET THE HECK OFF ME WOLF!"

"Sessh?" Rin called out. Seeing Miroku on top of her, she screamed, and fell, making her friends all fall.

"I had a feeling that would happen…" Sango said from the side.

"Eww…." Rin made a grotesque face while gagging. "I think I just got scarred for life…I mean, honestly…another guy other than my significant other on top of me!"

"So you're admitting that you've gone to at least third base with Sessh?" Inuyasha smirked, but cowered under Sango's menacing hand. **(OK, I know third base is already "it" under some definitions, but striking it home is "it" when I read it online…third base is getting laid…I don't want to go any further…O.o;)**

"Pervert…" Koga and Miroku muttered.

"Not that you two should be talking…." Sango raised her other hand toward Koga, and raised her Hiraikotsu with her leg towards Miroku.

"Oh, umm…what are these glasses for…umm…Inuyasha?" Ayame quickly changed the subject, wanting to avoid any unnecessary violence.

Inuyasha was glad to change the subject too. "I just brought these in case. I have a feeling that they'll help us save Kagome, but I'm not so sure. Just wait. According to the clock in the hallway, this is right after all of us had gone in for the prank."

Kagome was sitting in the hallway. Inuyasha gazed longingly at her. After waiting a few minutes, Miroku saw a few girls walk down the hallway, and tried to grope them. His hand just passed right through their bottoms. But even though his hands passed through, Sango's Hiraikotsu connected with Miroku's head.

"It's a wonder that Miroku hasn't died yet…" Koga muttered.

"Oh, and I forgot to tell you all that this is a viewing portal!" Inuyasha called out. "It means this place is like a T.V., but we're actually at the spot where this happened. So whatever you touch in this dimension, your hand will go right through…"

With that, Miroku leapt up, and jumped through the wall into the room where they were playing the prank. Sensing no good, Sango jumped in after him, caught him still trying to grope the Alternate-Sango, and knocked him out unconscious.

Fifteen minutes….Alter-Mrs. Takahashi came down the hallway, and questioned Kagome about the ruckus going on in the dorm.

So much more time….Present-time Ayame and Rin had falled asleep in their boyfriends' arms. Sango and Miroku were making up in the hallway, and apologizing for annoying each other. Inuyasha, looking around to see if anyone was looking, leaned over to kiss his girlfriend's sweet lips, even though his mouth would pass through. But he was halfway, when Kagome's legs kicked right through him in a flash.

"You guys! Look at this!" Inuyasha shouted.

Kirara had turned into full youkai form, but ended up disappearing into thin air. Kagome's legs were pounding at nothing, but she was being held up, and when they made connection with the walls, they made cracks. Her mouth magically had a gag in it.

"She definitely had the Shikon on her to make such large cracks…How come we didn't hear that?" Sesshomaru asked.

"OH NO!" Ayame squealed. "That means that all that happened while the ladder fell, Koga was banging the windows, and while Miroku got his head smashed! No wonder we didn't hear anything!"

"Oh Shiz…" Sango started.

The scene suddenly paused. Inuyasha commanded, "OK. Everybody, put those glasses on."

"THAT'S NARAKU? AND KIKYOU AND KAGURA AND KANNA!" Rin screamed. "AND THEY'RE GREEN!

"Yes. These glasses provide inside looks at things like this. So technically, those four evil dudes could run, but they can't escape these glasses. They show up as green when they're invisible in our dimension. Now I'm going to rewind this viewing portal and go in slow mode…"

The entire scene slowed down. Kirara changed into her youkai form, snarling at the lime green Kikyou, Kanna, and Kagura, who advanced on her, snatching her away. Naraku clutched Kagome around the waist. Inuyasha saw this, and growled.

"Why did Kirara change so fast? Kagome didn't even know!" Ayame said.

"Animal-like things like Kirara can see the invisible. They can see on different vision planes."

"Maybe that's why she changed in our dorm! She saw somebody outside the window!" Rin explained rapidly, particularly to Ayame and Sango.

Suddenly, Kagome and Naraku charged down the hall towards the wall with Kikyou and Kagura. In the blink of an eye, they were gone, through the wall.

"Inuyasha, the time!" Sesshomaru warned. "Our previous selves are going to be coming out pretty soon!"

"Get past the wall before it changes solid!" Inuyasha cried.

They ran for Kagome's sake toward the wall, and all passed through it. Suddenly, Rin yelled. Her foot was stuck in the wall.

"Crud…it must have solidified before she got all the way through…" Koga muttered.

Inuyasha thought about the problem, and said, "No problem. WIND SCAR!"

The wall broke, and Rin fell forward, into Sesshomaru's arms. Sesshomaru used his Tessaiga to fix the wall.

"H-How did you do that?" Inuyasha gasped, catching flies.

"I discovered that not only Tessaiga can bring people back to life, it can fix things. But screw that….where did Naraku go?"

Ayame pointed up a spiraling stair case. "Maybe up there…"

The seven trailed up the stair case, with Inuyasha in front, and Sesshomaru last, just in case anything popped out. They passed a window, and no moon showed, but there were no clouds….Miroku suddenly had a horrifying thought pass through his head.

"Inu--"

But Inuyasha did not listen. An alien like thing had popped out of the ceiling, and attacked Inuyasha's face. Sesshomaru looked hard at the creature, and yelled, "JAKEN!"

Jaken looked up for an instant, and that instant sent him flying when Inuyasha flung him off his face. The demon was going to crash into the wall, when all of a sudden, a door opened, and Jaken went flying into a brightly lit room behind the door.

Inuyasha looked at the person who opened the door, and gasped, "KIKYOU!"

"Yes, it's me…whatcha gonna do? Like Oh, My Gosh...Kill me?"

Ayame, Rin, and Sango would've forced their way out of their line in the stairs to punch Kikyou, but the staircase were so narrow, that a single step could send them down to their deaths. Inuyasha growled, and pulled out his Tetsusaiga, only to find that it was a mere stick.

Before he thought anymore thoughts, a chilling laugh pervaded the entire place. Inuyasha knew that laugh, and ignoring that it was a stick, charged into the room with all his friends. He saw Kagome bound on the floor, unconscious. He bounded toward her, but found that he was tiring.

_That's strange…normally I would be having so much energy, but…_

Inuyasha looked horrifyingly at his hands. His friends, especially Miroku were shocked.

Naraku stepped out of the shadows. "How does it feel like to be a human on this night, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha glanced back at his friends, his eyes empty, but still surprised. The now brown eyes lingered on Miroku, who was nearly in tears.

"Su-Sumimasen…Inuyasha…I should've remembered…This Halloween is on the night of the new moon!" Miroku cried.


	18. Into the Storm

**Chapter 18: Into the Storm**

Inuyasha stared at Miroku. His friend, MIROKU….crying? Wow…that was a complete surprise. Miroku never ever cried. Ever. And now he was…A monk-in-training, one of his closest friends, weeping the river out of him.

The half-dog demon glanced at his hands, his now human hands. Well, what gives? He was a human now, and would be a human for the remainder of the night, until the first crack of dawn of November 1st **(Remember, they had a Halloween prank!) **But even still, he'd at least have to touch a bit of the sun's rays, and being observant enough, realized that there were no windows in this room, the door was locked, and the only light came from magic. The room was silent, no one was talking, and the only sound was the sound of heavy breathing of the "good guys". Kikyo, Naraku, Kanna, and Kagura were the only ones who were breathing calmly.

And speaking of Kikyo, Kanna, and Kagura…they were bored, and started doing jumping jacks and sit ups. Well, Kanna and Kagura were more forced to do it. Kikyo wasn't obsessing over makeup anymore…she was obsessing over how fat she was, even though she weighed only one-hundred pounds.

The silence was broken when Naraku paced over to Inuyasha and his gang.

"So…how do you like it now? Inuyasha, the great hanyou, now beaten to a human's form…and his pathetic girlfriend in the hands of me…"

Sango was turning redder at the minute. "Don't. Say. Such. Things. About. KAGOME!" She made an advancement toward Naraku, but Sesshomaru clapped a hand over her mouth. Sango fought it. She soon, however, gave up under Sesshomaru's strong hold.

"Wise move, demon. Pathetic humans. I figured that much out when I mind-wiped your math teacher. This violent girl's boyfriend can't even control himself." Naraku whispered. He glanced at the Tetsusaiga, and the Tessaiga. "Well…it looks like only one sword is working. Why not just make both of them invalid?" He flicked his finger at Sesshomaru's Tessaiga, and it cleanly snapped in half. Then, it turned into millions of pieces, and disintegrated. The strange part was that all the pieces flew towards Naraku, who gladly accepted them with his chest.

"What do you have?" Koga snarled. He was standing in front of Ayame the whole time to protect her.

"I-it's the Shikon….isn't it?" Miroku asked, controlling himself. "You stole it from Kagome…"

"What!" Sesshomaru asked, completely out of it. "Are you joking? If he had the Shikon, I would've sensed it!"

"I'll give that monk some credit. Maybe he wasn't all so pathetic after all. I had forgotten that only monks can sense the protection charm I put on the Shikon Jewel. All spells that exist in our world have loopholes."

Naraku pulled out the Jewel from his tuxedo. It glinted brightly, but somehow, it didn't have that nice shine…there was an evil aura coming from it. "And yes, if you're wondering, the Shikon is starting to turn evil for my deeds…"

Kagome began to stir on the floor. Her eyes were flickering. Naraku, catching sight of this, kicked her hard, and she fell unconscious again.

"She was pretty hard to knock out…but she's a beauty, despite her being a wench, huh?" Naraku smiled, winking towards Inuyasha, who growled protectively.

"NO!" Ayame cried. "You're NOT going to harass my friend. NO WAY!" She tore across in a whirlwind to bring back Kagome, but Naraku put up an invisible barrier. A sickening thud sounded, and she collapsed to the floor.

"Ayame!" Koga cried. He ran to her. "Thank Goodness…you're still breathing…"

"She's in a coma, you mangy wolf," Naraku snapped. "And she won't awake…forever…"

"Well guess what, you _baka_!" Rin shouted. Her tiny frame stood out. "I don't believe in any 'forever'. We'll take you on! And if we win, we get the Shikon, Ayame AND Kagome back." She instantly realized she had said something dumb out of anger, and clapped her hands to her mouth. "Oh shizzle…"

"Riiiinnnnnn….." Sango groaned. "Why did you do that without thinking?"

Naraku smirked. "Well, what's done is done. I accept! But of course, it would be too easy for you guys to be all against me, right? So why don't we do it the old fashioned way? Boys against boys, and girls against girls. And Rin…you talk too much…"

He snapped, and a little white glow the size of a pearl at Rin's voice box zipped towards his chest. When the glow was halfway to the jewel, Kikyo suddenly cried out, "That's not fair, Naraku!"

Naraku turned to her, and said, "NOW what?"

"You always take all the powers away, and control them! I want to control one of the powers for once! Let me control Rin's voice!"

Naraku didn't think this was exactly such a good idea, as he knew that Kikyo always lost things. But he didn't want to lose his followers. After all, once he obtained the Shikon Jewel, he would throw the three teens off him. And Rin wasn't that strong, was she? So he consented, "Fine. Just don't lose it." He clutched the pearl-white glow in his hands, and tossed it to Kikyo, who clumsily caught it.

During this time, Rin tried to speak, but nothing came out. Everyone saw her do the motion of clearing her throat, but not a sound came from her. Even when she clapped her hands, not a sound came out. Stamping her feet, snapping…nothing…Rin shot Naraku a death glare. It was as if no sound of her existed on Earth anymore.

Naraku smiled at the struggling girl. He barked, "Kikyo! Kanna! Kagura! You're fighting Sango here…" Sango turned red again, but Naraku said, "Well, I compliment your bravery back there…so, as a reward, Kanna is not allowed to use her mirror…"

"Oh, before the games begin…." Naraku paused. "My name means 'hell', so that means I'm the devil…But do enjoy life while you can, because the next few seconds of your short life will be hell!" He shot his hands toward the sky, and the entire place turned into a fiery maze, the shape of a pyramid. To get to the next level of the pyramid, the people inside had to fight through the obstacles of the first level, find the ladder to the next level, and begin the process all over again until they reached the top. There were different stories, 13 to be exact. The maze was a cross section, so viewers could see what was happening. Naraku jumped to the 13th level with Ayame and Kagome, and yelled down, "13 levels of Hell, guys! Have fun!"

With that, arms shot out from the door of the first level, and beckoned to Inuyasha, Miroku, Kouga, and Sesshomaru. The first three respectively piled into the door of the maze, and Sesshomaru was about to go in, when he felt a tiny tug on his tail. He turned around, saw Rin crying mutely, and gave her a hug. A feeble hug was returned. Her eyes read, _Be careful…_

* * *

Sango was not pleased. First, Ayame and Kagome get knocked out, and now Rin is close to helpless. It was only her. Kikyo and Kagura and Kanna were bickering over who got to attack her first. All Sango really wanted to do was kick off their butts quickly, and get it over with so she could rescue Kagome and Ayame.

"Fine! Be that way! But Bankotsu's mine!" Kikyo randomly shouted at the end. She faced Sango. "Dang it, I've got to face you first. That's SO unfair."

"Bring it!" Sango snarled. Her Hiraikotsu was expertly poised in front of her.

Kikyo churned purple energy in her hand, and shot it towards Sango. Sango sighed, and stepped aside, as the attack missed her by five feet.

"Come on, Kikyo! Kagome has played that on me more than I can count!" Then, Sango, threw her boomerang directly into Kikyo's face, where it made contact with her nose. CRACK! Kikyo's nose broke.

"You broke my nose! Oh my gosh! I had a face job two days ago too! OH MY GOSH! You evil person!" Kikyo started panicking, and running around. Kanna and Kagura rolled their eyes and turned their backs to avoid embarrassment. Rin, who thankfully was not knocked out, was bored at the moment. She decided to help Sango, and snuck up on Kikyo to hit her, when WHAM! Rin was thrown to the floor.

"Oh, come on, now, girl. You didn't think that we wouldn't see, right?" Kagura smirked, holding up her fan. She had used a mini wind on Rin. "Kikyo! Pull yourself together!"

But Kikyo wasn't answering because of the pain. Puzzled, Kanna looked over at Kikyo, and saw a boomerang coming towards her. That was one of the last things she saw before blacking out. Kagura was shocked, and saw that Kikyo and Kanna had broken noses, and were blacked out too.

"Holy Fuddruckers! **(That's a burger shop, guys! LOL) **Now I'M alone!"

In the midst of Kagura panicking, Rin had crawled over to Kikyo, and looked in her pockets and purse. In Kikyo's pockets alone, Rin pulled out six tubes of lipstick, twenty tubes of lip gloss, three compact mirrors, four containers of blush, seven combs, and some other things that you don't really wanna know…She hadn't found what she wanted to look for, and scrounged around Kikyo's mini-bag. Only it wasn't mini at all…

While Rin was still searching for her mystery item, Sango had to fend off several wind attacks. She was tiring quickly, and Kagura knew it too. But Kagura wanted to have the fun of hurting Sango like crazy, just like how Sango beat her in martial arts class. Her wind attacks increased in level bit by bit.

"Not such a hot shot now, are you?" Kagura sneered, bringing down her fan quite hard. Kanna was useless now, so they couldn't do the Memories Gust attack. But she had one more trick up her sleeve that was even more powerful than any joint attack.

"I don't care! I'll beat you, and you know it!" Sango cried back, gritting her teeth against the strength of the winds. It was a wonder that the wind hadn't blown her five times around the world…yet.

Meanwhile, Rin was still looking through Kikyo's not-so-mini minibag. Kikyo had crammed EVEN MORE compact mirros, lipstick and lip gloss tubes, and other unnecessary crap in there! She finally got fed up, and dumped the contents out. A little pearl-sized glow rolled out. Rin did a silent cheer of excitement, picked up the glow, and pressed it against her throat, feeling the warm tones of song blend back into her body. She was relieved, and snapped her fingers to test out whether she had gained back sound. A snap sounded back, and Rin, satisfied, whipped around to help Sango.

"Get prepared, you stupid girl!" Kagura shouted. Her Dance of the Dragon move would blast Sango through the school walls, sending her to a terrible death. She swiped her fan down with all her might, and gleefully watched Sango fly backwards.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"_Koth yu venti trae _(Wind of the oppressor)_, fraze caladoris piyet kwel _(Hot and cold of its soul)_, pep weob qwlg _(Here me cry)_, qewbs oboe qwgv owgvn iew _(Help the one in need)_!" _**(Yea, if any of you are asking, I totally made that up. The first two phrases I thought about, but later on, I just started randomly typing things into the keyboard and making up stupid translations….)**

Sango was a foot from tearing through the walls, when the wind that was carrying Sango to her death formed an air bubble around her, protecting her from the impact. She ended up floating down to the ground, where the wind dissipated. Kagura began to catch flies, and the voice continued again, "_Owebn eofhw fownpq_ (Now wind begin), _qwknb qopgiw qbonf_ (Attack your original master), _qobr wigoeb wovne eibn_ (Take vengeance), _qopboe ebprjd dfj!_ (And stay until I release!)" **(Err…same rule applies here…)**

A wind picked up again, and formed cold air chains. They clamped down Kagura to the ground, and made a gag for her mouth. Kagura was wriggling around in vain, so the wind made a tighter bind.

Rin stepped over to Kagura, and triumphantly said, "HA! If you keep on wriggling, the wind will only keep on growing tighter and tighter. Now be a good girl, and next time, learn to take a taste of your own medicine! Oh, and I better bind Kanna and Kikyo too…."

After binding the three evil girls (_wpbo wjgo qpne_, Wind do the same), the tiny girl rushed over to Sango, who was picking herself up. Rin sang a song of Energy, helping Sango back to her fighting condition.

"Rin! Th-that was amazing! That was more powerful than any of the things you've ever sang!" Sango cried, nearly speechless.

"Well…Kagome stole the teacher's book, so she kinda corrupted me on that part…I made up the song too, by borrowing a few books from the restricted section of the library…without my ID card. So I guess it's safe to say I stole the books. But I'll return them."

"But the pronunciation! I had no idea what the translations were, but omg…that was like, computer gibberish!"

"Umm…that takes a lot of practice. **(No duh, readers Computer gibberish seems a little hard to read….)** It's a very complicated spell. Often times, I messed many of the words beginning with 'q', and the wind I conjured ended up trying to attack me!"

"Thank you so much Rin!" Sango hugged Rin tightly.

"No prob…our next task…to help our other friends!"

They jogged over to the entrance of the maze, ready to take on anything that got in their way.

* * *

Naraku looked over the entire room. Yes, magic was fun. He had made the entire room a lot bigger to accommodate a mini battle field, and not only that, it was fun being the devil—especially now. He fingered the Shikon in his fingers, and looked down at his step-daughter and Ayame. He would deal with them later. Naraku closed his eyes in glee, failing to notice that Kagura had been beaten.

"I wonder just how those boys are doing…" he muttered.


	19. Hell 101

**A/N **_**Achaa! **_**Sorry readers! I didn't update the REAL chapter nineteen for about a year now! I feel very guilty…I've had SO MUCH TO DO it's not even funny…but now, it's summer break for me, so I think I should be getting some progress in…There are about 5 to 6 chapters left, depending on how I want to 'break up' the chapters. Hold in there, readers! I need you!**

* * *

**Chapter 19: Hell 101**

The room of the first level of the maze could be compared to a haunted house play-thing that any kid would dream of. The walls were made of hard, rough stucco, and every ten feet or so, a torch burned, giving a ghostly illumination.

The general ambience of the maze did not give Miroku a good feeling at all. Sure, it was scary, but the difficulty of passing the first level seemed…too easy. Just fight your way through thirteen levels and defeat Naraku? Nah-uh. There had to be some trick involved, even with Inuyasha's powers diminished to zero, Sesshomaru's sword broken to smithereens, Koga's constant worrying for Ayame (who had been knocked out and taken along with Kagome to the top of the pyramid by Naraku), and his own cowardice.

And Miroku already figured out the trick. His right hand—the one that held the Wind Tunnel curse, was itching. The fighting teacher, Irino-san, and told Miroku that everything was all right. As long as he practiced and trained long enough, the Wind Tunnel curse would disappear. And the curse did leave. No longer would Miroku be slowly consumed by the curse, but he would also benefit from it—he could still keep the Wind Tunnel.

But why was a large, bloodshot eye tattooed into his palm?

"Hey, guys…" Miroku started. "I don't know about you guys, but I definitely don't think we should be splitting up."

Koga frowned, and tightened his head wrap. "That's weird. I was just going to suggest that…"

Miroku twisted his lip nervously, and looked at the rest of the gang. He held up his hand with the eye tattooed on, and explained, "There's something wrong with this maze, no, actually, there's something wrong with this entire thing that Naraku's set up. Wouldn't you think it too easy that we just defeat the things in this maze and then beat the crap out of Naraku?"

"Well, then, he'd make the maze levels harder, wouldn't he?" Sesshomaru slowly said. "That's quite obvious…"

"No, you're missing the point, Sesshomaru," Inuyasha said, pulling a lock of black hair—human hair, away from his own face. "Miroku's right. The general concept of just passing the maze and defeating Naraku's too easy. Naraku has something else involved to make us suffer."

"Ok…and I'm just going to guess that has something to do with the eye tattooed on Miroku's palm, right?" Kouga ventured, cocking his head.

Miroku nodded. He spoke, "I don't know what this eye does yet, but I think it's definitely safe for me not to use Wind Tunnel."

"Agreed," the rest of the gang simultaneously said.

"And one more thing," Koga mentioned, ripping a piece of cloth off his school uniform. "Cover the eye. It's too late for Halloween celebrations and decorations anyways. It makes me feel as if we're being watched."

Miroku bound his right hand, and turned to everyone else. "'Kay, I'm done."

"_Ikuso_…Let's go." Inuyasha stoically replied, and all of them ran down one of the many paths of the maze.

Up at the top of the pyramid, Naraku closed his eyes from a giant mirror-like portal surrounded with green flames, of which the four boys temporarily disappeared from. He poisonously smiled, and muttered, "Of course you're being watched…Welcome to Hell 101!"

* * *

Sango and Rin had also entered level one of the maze. Sango was extremely pissed off at this point. After trying about three different times, she and Rin had run into three different dead ends. Luckily, they'd marked the areas that they'd already gone through, or they would've gone in circles forever.

It didn't improve Sango's temper to know that there were uphills and downhills in the first level. Her energy level was being wasted on a stupid maze. Yes, a maze. Not a race, not a test, a maze. Could life get anymore unpredictable?

Also, a few super-sized animal youkais had hindered the two girls' progress to finding the exit. And super-sized didn't mean the regular, "Would you like to supersize that order?" type of thing offered by WacDonalds, but the triple-double-quadruple-extra-whipped-cream-on-top type of supersize. It was almost as if those animals ate the triple-double-quadruple-extra-whipped-cream-on-top coffees and ice creams every single day for breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, and late-night snack!

Clipping her Hiraikotsu back onto her back, which had just successfully beaned a tiger youkai, Sango and Rin ran down the hopefully-right path towards an exit. She called to Rin, "Tell me if you see any doors, or anything else that sparks unique interest."

"_Wakata_…I know."

"Speaking of which Rin," Sango asked, turning to Rin, who was sprinting at her side. "Why can't you just sing the pyramid down…break it or something?"

Rin sadly looked down. "I wish I could, but I'm not strong enough. Naraku's converting the Shikon Jewel for his own evil needs right now. As the conversion's happening, the pyramid's getting stronger and more difficult to overcome. It would take the strength and powers of a fully-fledged miko to totally destroy this pyramid."

"Oh…" Sango disappointingly said, her pretty face wrinkling into a sad face. _Everyone…we're coming to save you now…hang on…_

Suddenly, Rin skidded to a stop, even falling over because of the abruptness. Picking herself up, she excitedly whispered, "Sango, the door!"

Sango's ghostly illuminated face was bright with glee. "You're right!"

The door to the exit of the maze was cleverly camouflaged into the stucco walls. Rin had just happened to turn her head towards it when she and Sango were running—otherwise, they would've missed it completely.

"Ya know…" Rin slowly started, squinting her eyes at the door. She walked up to it examined the handle and frame of the door. "Sesshomaru, Miroku, Inuyasha, and Kouga haven't made it out of this level yet…"

"What?"

"There's certain type of seal on this door—I don't know what type it is, but I know it's an indicator. It sends a message to Naraku whenever it's opened. But the door frame is supposed to become more obvious to other people once the door has been opened, and not concealed like it was to us. And the handle is supposed to glow a different color…"

Sango patted Rin on the shoulder, "You're brilliant girl…so how do we find our idiots who are still probably cluelessly wandering around in this maze?"

Rin grimly smiled, and nodded her head towards lower elevation. "Finding our friends? Easy. Right down there. Saving our friends from a now double-triple-super-sized-order spider? No comment…"

* * *

**A/N Hah, left you hanging! Personally, I liked my super-sized gag going on with Sango and Rin :) Anyways, I think I don't think I did that great in this chapter (of course, I ditched the story-line for a year…) And I've kinda gotten into Naruto…that's not helping me write Inuyasha stuff…but if you want to read my Naruto fic, go read it.**

**And NOBODY reviewed my revised chapters! Except for Hearii-sama :) So I thank her very much for that. By the way, Hearii-sama, I've fixed what you told me about. So thanks so very much!**


	20. The Story of the Devil

**A/N Hello once again! Nobody reviewed, but I found out why! I posted chapter 19 as an author's note a very long time ago. Quite a number of people reviewed, so when I posted chapter 19 again, they couldn't review for the same chapter again. Man, I'm dumb. But will you guys pllllleeeeeeaaaasssseeee review this chapter? **

* * *

**Chapter 20: The Story of the Devil**

_**Previously…**_

"_Ya know…" Rin slowly started, squinting her eyes at the door. She walked up to it examined the handle and frame of the door. "Sesshomaru, Miroku, Inuyasha, and Kouga haven't made it out of this level yet…"_

"_What?"_

"_There's certain type of seal on this door—I don't know what type it is, but I know it's an indicator. It sends a message to Naraku whenever it's opened. But the door frame is supposed to become more obvious to other people once the door has been opened, and not concealed like it was to us. And the handle is supposed to glow a different color…"  
_

_Sango patted Rin on the shoulder, "You're brilliant, girl…so how do we find our idiots who are still probably cluelessly wandering around in this maze?"_

* * *

The four boys filed around the stucco maze, watching their shadows dance and bounce off the walls as they passed torch by torch. They were in a line with Inuyasha was in the lead with Sesshomaru taking the back. Already, they'd run into quite a few dead ends. 

"_Kuso_…when the heck are we gonna find the end of this?" Miroku cursed, rubbing the hand that had the eye tattooed on. "We've already gone through ups and downs in this course, we went through the same dead end twice before we were smart enough to know that we should mark where we've been, and I don't see the damn exit."

"You forgot that we also encountered two wolf youkais, thirteen large vampire bats, three bear youkais, and a zombie…" Koga added, not making the situation really any better.

Miroku glared at Koga, and made a fist, saying, "You are so lucky that 1. I'm your friend and 2. We're in a predicament where it wouldn't be convenient to knock you out."

Sesshomaru sneered, baring his fangs at his friend, "Yea. And what did dear old Koga do when we saw the youkais? He ran away. Like Chicken Little. Only a lot faster."

"I was NOT running like Chicken Little. It's not like the ceiling of this maze is going to fall anyways!"

"You so were running. You could've at least talked to those wolf youkais and bargained with them or something—where'd your training class abilities go?" Sesshomaru crossed his arms, and frowned.

"You guys, just shut up. Cut it out!" Inuyasha barged in verbally, his eyes flaming. "We all had some faults in this maze, OK? And it's not entirely our fault. Remember that I'm human for now, Sesshy doesn't have his sword, Koga doesn't have anything to attack with right now, and Miroku's Wind Tunnel is out of order. So stop putting the blame on each other!"

Sesshomaru and Koga sneered at each other, crossed their arms, and with a "Hmph!", turned their backs to each other.

The four started again on the maze silently, continuing into the darkness. But Sesshomaru, Koga, and Miroku started bickering again about who really was the Chicken Little in the group. So Inuyasha had gone way ahead of his friends, neglecting to tell them off. He was so far away from the group, that his friends nearly looked like pins in the hallway. All of a sudden, he stopped in his tracks.

Picking up an abrupt stop in Inuyasha's pace from his demon senses, Sesshomaru called out, "Hey, Yash? What's the matter?"

Inuyasha's voice came out a little high as he asked them back, "Are you guys scared of spiders?"

"OK, don't tell me that you're just stopping because a dinky little spider just crossed you, or landed on you…" Koga sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Just answer the question."

"As long as they're not too big…" the three replied back, looking at one another. What could this mean?

"OK, everybody," Inuyasha breathed. He was slowly stepping backwards. "Remember how we talked about Chicken Little running?"

"Yea…"

"Do Chicken Little's speed more than triple back down where we came from."

Right after Inuyasha finished, a "CRASH" sounded from close to where he was standing. Miroku cried, "Inuyasha! Are you alive!?"

Out of the setting dust, Miroku saw a panicked Inuyasha hurtling with as much speed as his human legs could muster towards him. "JUST GO! THIS FREAKIN' _double-triple-super-sized-order spider _IS DOWN THIS FREAKIN' HALLWAY!"

None of them needed to be told twice. With screams and yells, the four started running for their lives as a double-triple-super-sized-order spider began crawling insanely fast towards them.

* * *

"Faster, Rin! Faster!" Sango yelled, fear almost taking complete control of her body. She had made a conspicuous mark on the door so that she wouldn't lose sight of it again. Her Hiraikotsu was already in her hands, prepared for anything that could happen. 

"I'm already going as fast as I can downhill without falling over!" Rin shouted back, almost tripping over a pebble.

Reaching lower elevation, they charged towards the spot where the boys were. It wasn't too hard to hear them, as their screams were deafening, echoing off the walls.

"OH MY KAMI! WE JUST GOT STUCK IN A DEAD END!" they heard one of the boys yell.

"Miroku, use your scrolls or something! Anything that'll slow the spider down!" someone else yelled. "I'll dig out of the wall or something to the other side!"

The sounds of scrolls being chucked at the spider could be heard, but Sango knew that the method of attack wasn't working—there was no blinding light to be seen, nor was there the magical tinkling sound.

"Gah! The walls keep repairing themselves!"

"They are so screwed…" Sango muttered, dragging Rin along as they ran towards the commotion. "Please, Kami, let us make it there on time!"

* * *

Naraku sat in his chair, drumming his fingers, as he watched the scene with bored eyes. Ho-hum, they were fighting a giant spider. Big deal. He almost wished that he hadn't taken away all their weapons—it would've been fun to see them actually do something. 

He heard Ayame stir at his side. Her pretty face crinkled in pain, and she attempted to get up. She trembled, while on her knees, coughing very loudly.

"Just shut up," Naraku snarled, kicking her in the stomach. Ayame flew a few feet away from where she was, and finally rolled to a stop on her back. She coughed again, this time blood dribbling out of her lips. Then, she was still once again.

Naraku paced over to the cross-section part of the level. While outsiders could see into the cross-sectioned pyramid, the participants in the maze couldn't see outside. Only this thirteenth level had a clear window on the inside to show the outside. Kikyo, Kanna, and Kagura should be watching the show from their spots outside the pyramid after beating Sango and Rin…

Or not.

Naraku sighed. What a pathetic world. Kikyo, Kanna, and Kagura all were trussed up and tossed into a rough pile. So much for hiring his subordinates.

Walking back to his chair, he watched the boys struggle against the spider that he put in the maze. The dark hands that had beckoned to the boys to enter the pyramid (this was in chapter 18…) put the eye on Monk-Boy's hand so that he could see the boys' every movement—hopefully so that Naraku could learn about all the boys' moves before they hit the thirteenth level where he sat.

Being the true Devil, he probably should've put harder things in Level 1, other than just a complicated maze and spiders and youkais. Naraku sold his soul to Satan a long time ago—about ten years. The original Satan was taking his long needed retirement in the Bahamas, blowing whatever hurricanes the old geezer could still make.

Naraku clenched his fist so hard at the thought of having sold his soul that veins began to show up in his arm. In exchange for true demonic powers, he'd given up the original Naraku—the old Naraku that could laugh, smile, and give hugs.

But it's not like he missed the old, gentle Naraku. What could the old Naraku have done as a measly human? The old Naraku would never have been able to bring his dead sister back to life after she'd died for the second and last time.

'_She should've listened to us, our family…'_ Naraku hatefully thought, baring his teeth at no one in particular.

* * *

**Flashback: The Ninth Circle of Hell—10 years ago**

"Satan-san…" Naraku started, trembling slightly in fear. He'd gone this far for one simple request that was turned down by the pantheon of Shinto Kami.

Satan lazily turned his head to the human. The horns on his head were itching for fun. He purposely made an extra arm and leg grow out of his body. Naraku flinched and shut his eyes. Satan snickered. The man in front of him was going to wet his pants any second now. He hadn't had so much fun scaring true humans since Dante Alighieri's time.

"Whaddya want…"

"I-I have a simple request, Satan-san…" Naraku started again, trying to tear his eyes away from the numerous amounts of body parts that were growing out of his body. "Will you…will you bring my sister back to life?"

Satan was in the middle of growing out an extra head when he heard that comment and stopped. "Bring back your sister…?" Satan repeated slowly, looking at Naraku to make sure.

Naraku nodded, "_Hai_. Yes."

Satan shrugged, and returned back to growing out the head. "No can do. I'm the devil, but I'm still only one against an entire pantheon of Shinto gods who ultimately decides who gets to be brought back to life. And they never bring anyone back. I heard that she was brought back to life once, but died again. But if you sell your soul to me, you can do something…"

Naraku's eyes widened. He would do anything—anything so that he could see his younger sister's smile once more…just once more. The most beautiful pearly-white smile that was contagious and always brightened up the world…

"Wh-what's the price…?"

Satan smiled and out popped another eye from his shoulder. He was disappointed to see the human not flinch, but at least it gave an un-said message to Satan that the human was listening now. He said, "You're a human now. If I transfer most of my powers to you, you'll be a human plus a god. Or a devil in my case, but it's basically human plus divine powers. That's more than at least one god in the pantheon of Shinto. And if you conquer one god, you can basically conquer the rest."

Naraku nodded.

"But you'll have to give up your personality to me. And if I was right, your sister thought that you had the most wonderful character in the world…?"

Naraku almost stopped breathing. Give up his personality? His charm, his laughter, his humor, his good characteristics? This would disappoint his sister…

But his goal was just to see his sister—just to see her smile again as a live woman. Not the sickly woman she was before she died…

"I'll do it. Give me your powers."

A hand popped out of Satan's chest. It wasn't scaring the human now, but making body parts come out of his body was kind of fun. Satan continued, "I'll tell you, however, that just becoming the devil won't be enough. You'll need another item—the Shikon Jewel. And the current possessor of the jewel needs to be alive in order to work the Jewel's true powers. And you'll need a sacrifice. The Shikon increases power by almost three hundred fold, and it does other miraculous things that probably wouldn't suit your purpose, but whatever. I kind of gave up searching for it a long time ago."

"Search…?"

"You pea-brained ninny! Of course!" Satan belted at Naraku, who plugged his ears at the noise. "What, did you think you could just call out the Shikon Jewel? Highly powered mikos own this jewel—they pass it down within the family. Last I heard, it was at the hands of some woman named Higurashi. But no one knows where she lives, or if she even exists anymore. They're clever, those mikos…"

Naraku frowned. Clever? Satan must've meant that the miko would put illusions around their homes. Then he'd have to get that woman through human means…

"Ach. Anyways, I need a break," Satan yawned, and stretched. "OK, I'm transferring my powers into you. Good luck with bringing back your sister. She's a beauty…"

Satan closed his eyes, and red, green, and purple mist began to surround his body. As that was happening, dark blue and silver mist surrounded Naraku. Naraku saw the mist around him begin to switch places with the mist around Satan. A burning sensation shot up his legs.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!" Naraku cried out in pain, as the mist from Satan began to forcefully work his way into his chest. He collapsed. Squinting, he saw the blue and silver mist that originally came from him go into Satan.

Finally, the work was done. Naraku shakily got up. He still felt fine, but a little light headed—and irritable. He felt like pummeling something. And the closest thing was Satan.

"You wretched beast! Why are you in my sight!? Get away! Go, now, before I destroy you!" Naraku shouted at Satan, the cruel temper having taken over his body. Holding up a hand, Naraku formed a ball of red energy in his hand, preparing to throw it towards Satan.

"Gee whiz…" Satan rolled his eyes. "I predicted the mood change to occur five days after transfer, but you're a desperate one aren't you? Well, _jya_…"

And Satan disappeared.

Naraku stared at the whirling energy in his hand and willed it to disappear. Seeing that it worked, Naraku began to evilly laugh. Taking back his sister wouldn't be a hard task…

* * *

Step one had been completed a long time ago. He'd conquered the gods in the pantheon one by one. Not exactly conquered as in beating up, but scared them to the point where the Rain God wet his pants—and unintentionally wet everybody else's for that matter. He allowed everyone to continue carrying out their jobs, but step one was just to show the pantheon that there was a higher up. 

Marrying Midoriko Higurashi was easy. Although she'd put up illusions to protect her home from demon view, Naraku went the human way—Internet dating. Killing her original husband was almost just step one and a half. That was too easy. Step two had been complete.

Step three had been a little bit of a bugger when he found that he couldn't just kill Kagome. There was a backfire spell on the Shikon that automatically killed the thief if he or she stole it off the premises of its location. But Kagome had left the house, breaking the spell, and step three completed itself.

This was now step four. The penultimate one. To capture Kagome and hold her hostage, until the strongest sacrifice that went through the maze reached the thirteenth level.

Naraku finished running through his plan that had taken a little over ten years. Turning to look at Ayame's still, but live body, hate began to clutch at Naraku's heart. He snarled to her body, "I hate any type of youkai that belongs to the dog-family—including wolves. My younger sister's death was surely caused by her husband…a damn dog youkai…or wolf. I forget which. They're too darn similar."

His younger sister would probably hate him for doing this now. But she'd thank him later when she got to see everything in this world. Her son, her brother, sakura flowers, ramen and udon, etc.

Looking back at the scene with the fight with the spider, Naraku saw that Sango and Rin had caught up. And the spider was probably going to win. Any second now.

If they didn't make it, he could always use Ayame for the sacrifice that was needed for the exchange of bringing back the dead…but it was always better to use a healthy body than a beat up one.

'_Man, step four would just have to be waited out…' _Naraku thought, frustrated, drumming his fingers once more.

* * *

**A/N Well, it's chapter 20 for you guys! And yes, I'm pretty obsessed with ****Dante** **Alighieri's "Divine Comedy"--hence, the "Ninth Circle of Hell".** **I once had a VERY different plot of how my story was going to happen. I had Naraku's little sister have a little flashback of her own and stuff, but, yea…obviously that's not going to happen…The Submit Review button is itching…**


	21. Advancement

_**A/N Hmph. Nobody reviewed the last chapter. Anyways, three things: 1. I've been banned off once again and I'm sneaking on 2. The entire story is complete—I just posted the rest of the chapters in one-sitting because nobody cares, and who knows when the next time I can sneak on is. 3. It's fine with me if you don't want to review. Besides, I think I've already lost completely control over how this story is going. It's like crud now. I'm completing this only because I hate giving up when I'm so close to the end. And almost nobody reads author notes anyways, so big deal. **_

* * *

**Chapter 21: Advancement**

"M-Miroku!" Koga whimpered while clinging on to his friend for dear life. The giant spider's venom dripped all around the boys while they cowered against the wall. "Th-Throw something at it! Come on!"

"Well, I can't do that while you're hanging on to me, you wolf!" the monk tugged away from the teen, while reaching into his bag for scrolls. He tossed a few at the spider with all the force that he had, but to no avail; they bounced off like cherry-balls.

Sesshomaru covered his face to protect it from all the sparks that came off of the scrolls as they landed near him. Inuyasha attached himself to Sesshomaru and yelled, "Tell my mommy that I love her!"

"Dude, your mom's dead…" Sesshomaru snarled, attempting to keep calm in the situation.

The spider howled, and swooped down towards the group. The insanely large pincers clicked fiercely as the jaws of the spider enthusiastically lunged for its next meal.

"Indeed…" Miroku flatly said, his eye twitching as he tried not to think of impending death. "We are screwed."

The four screamed as loud as they could, shuddering in the corners of the wall behind them.

TWHACK! CRASH!

Sesshomaru opened an eye to find that everything was still in order on his body. The hand was still in place, the head was still on. He opened both eyes to see a smug Rin peering down into his face.

Inuyasha was still yelling his head off about his mother when Sango used her Hiraikotsu and banged him over the head hard. The hanyou instantly blacked out.

"Wow…" Miroku wondered, getting up and dusting off his school uniform. "That's a record—no one except me has ever been knocked out by Sango's boomerang. It must be an honor…"

"Not even a 'Thank you!' or 'Man, Sango, you're awesome, thanks!' or 'I love you for saving my life!'?" Sango screeched, raising her Hiraikotsu menacingly in the air towards Miroku. Her eyes flared, and in a low voice, she said, "I've used this thing many times already—you'll just be another one of the victims of this, Miroku, and it won't make a difference."

"Umm…knocking him out isn't going to really help our situation Sango…" Rin muttered.

"You're right…"

Koga breathed, "Oh, _kami_, I thought I was dead back there. Thanks loads, girls!"

"Gee whiz…" Sango closed her eyes, while sighing. She strapped the Hiraikotsu on her back, and said, "I can't believe you guys are so stupid sometimes."

Miroku ventured, "H-hey…w-well…we were trapped at a dead end, and—"

Rin took a deep breath, and said, "Baka. That's why you failed the last biology test we took, Miroku. A spider youkai's weakest spot is its center eye. NOT its hard shell."

The petite girl pointed her finger at the spider, whose center eye was profusely bleeding.

"Eww…" Sesshomaru winced, looking over at his stirring half-brother. "Maybe we should make Inuyasha drink some of that stuff up to clean this area up. He did drink toilet water as a kid before."

"Anyways…" Koga cut in, before Rin or Sango could get mad at Sesshomaru for such anecdotes that didn't help the situation. "Where's the exit?"

"Oh yea…it's on higher elevation," Sango said, pointing towards area where the door was roughly located. "I can't believe Naraku can make such a huge area…"

"And we've got to get there before he turns the entire Shikon jewel is converted," Inuyasha groaned, rubbing his head while he stood up. "Dang, Sango. Have you been working out extra hours or something?"

Rin grabbed Sango's wrist before she could do anything again. Miroku shrugged, "Consider it an honor. She's never hit any of her friends with that thing except me."

His hand reached out for something while Sango was saying, "Miroku, I'm really surprised that you haven't—"

POW!

Sango's hand, meet Miroku's cheek. Miroku's cheek, meet Sango's hand…well, for about the thousandth time you guys have met.

"You just groped me, you perv," Sango sniffed, frowning at the swirly-eyed Miroku. "And I thought you'd changed for good. I was wrong."

"OK, can we just pllleeeeaaassseee get to the exit already?" Inuyasha impatiently begged, throwing up his hands in frustration. "Who knows, the frickin' place could just cave in all of a sudden."

As if on cue, the entire place began shaking violently, almost throwing the group to their knees. Sango yelled, "EVERYBODY! FOLLOW ME!"

Jumping up the rocks and climbing a small hill, Sango led them all to where she and Rin had first found the door. Yanking open the door amidst the falling rocks, the group piled through the door. With one last tremble, the entire place caved in.

* * *

Sango ran through the tunnel that the door had led them to. She finally stopped, panting extremely hard. Turning around, she made a head count of everyone. Sango gave a sigh of relief, and said, "OK, everyone's here…"

"That's the last time you're ever going to say anything, Yash…" Sesshomaru growled. "Anyways, what does Level 2 have for us?"

All the while, Rin was gazing at the cement walls that were paved perfectly smooth like marble. She frowned, and walking up to the wall and feeling it with her finger, said, "This is odd…the walls are cement, but they have a texture like polished stone."

"Whoa…you're right…" Miroku echoed, running his fingers along the wall. A burst of electricity burst from the tattooed eye on his palm. "OH SHIZ! THAT FRICKIN' HURT!"

"Well, it wasn't all for nothing…" Inuyasha shrugged, pointing to the spot where Miroku's hand had been shocked. "There's our exit right there."

"I really wish surprises these days didn't come with pain or life-threatening issues…" Miroku muttered, adding on a string of colorful words as he did so. The group proceeded towards into the doorway.

* * *

Naraku nodded his head while seeing the group slowly advance towards his thirteenth level. Clever girl, that violent Sango…

For almost the millionth time, Naraku told himself that he was bored. Which was why he'd created the cave-in and the door that could only be revealed when the wearer of his tattoo touched the walls.

He'd intended, actually for the group to walk on forever in the tunnel, but it looked like they got lucky.

Which was a good thing as well, or he would've been sitting here in boredom.

He dropped his head. So, what did he want? The group to survive and hurry up to entertain him, or did he just want the group to die? The answer was obscure for himself, still.

Ayame gave another cough, and rolled over, falling unconscious again. Naraku had a feeling that she wouldn't hold out if he kicked her again, and who knew if the team would pull through all the levels?

Naraku decided that he would want the group to survive. He was going to need a healthier sacrifice than some beat up girl. With a wave of his hand and a swiping motion across his viewing portal, he muttered a few incantations, and then sat back.

The rescue group had better thank him later for making life a hell of a lot easier.

Now, just to wait…

* * *

"Ya know…this is really, really weird…" Inuyasha muttered, looking all around him from the ceiling to a 360-degree vision around himself. The group was walking in an almost exact replica of the last level. "There's nothing in this third level."

"Indeed…and the walls are oh-so-shiny-cement like the last level…" Miroku bitterly said, rubbing his hand.

Sango patted Miroku on the back, and said, "Well, think about it, Houshi-chan…if you didn't touch the wall, the door probably wouldn't have appeared, and we would still be stuck in Level 2 not knowing what to do."

"So you want me to touch the wall again and be Magician Miroku for another door to appear?"

"No need," Koga called, who was way far ahead from the group. "There's a door at the end of the tunnel."

Rin ran up to inspect it. She said, "It doesn't seem to be a trap either…"

And so, all of them piled through the doorway, and up another flight of stairs to the next level…

Where there was nothing.

And to the fifth level….

Nothing.

And to the sixth level…

Nothing.

The pattern was the same all the way up; there was a long tunnel with cement-marble walls with a door at the end.

"I would've thought Naraku liked to give us hell by now…" Sesshomaru wondered out loud. "I could almost kiss him for making life a lot easier…"

"And if you do that, Fluffy-chan…" Rin turned around and smiled too sweetly, "I'll knock the lights out of you."

"I'm already really sick of all the fighting we've done, OK?" Inuyasha whirled around on everybody, his black human-hair flying in his face. "We've lost two of our comrades, and the world is already in mortal-peril from this lunatic who's taken the Shikon Jewel. Anymore fighting and we'll completely fall apart in front of Naraku. He'll be completely overjoyed. Let's work together, OK? Please. Teamwork."

Rin's eyes dropped to floor, as well as everyone else's. Sango whispered, "You know, you're right. Sorry…"

"And this is the twelfth level, right?" Koga asked, jogging everyone's memory. "Next level…we're battling Naraku and rescuing Ayame and Kagome."

Miroku stuck his hand out, and said, "This'll sound cheesy, and only weird little girls at softball matches do this, but let's all pile our hands and make a promise."

Slowly, one by one, Koga, Sesshomaru, Rin, Sango, and Inuyasha stacked their right hands upon each other. With three pushes, they then lifted their hands and held them by their face in a clenched fist.

"For Ayame, Kagome, and the world…" they all chanted, looking at each other and smiling. They then burst out laughing. It was cheesy alright, but heart-warming.

"_Sate_…Now…let's go beat up Naraku…" Inuyasha took a deep breath and worded, his hand reaching out for the handle of the door. "Guys, whatever we see on the other end, just DON'T panic. Keep calm, and concentrate…"

Sesshomaru added on, "And if we win, we'll just tell Irino-san that we don't have to take the Final Test in her class…"

"Feh. Like heck that'll work…" Inuyasha smirked, turning the squeaky knob.

He was ready to take on whatever was on the other side…

* * *

_**A/N Yea…this chapter sucked. And so will the rest, I believe.**_


	22. Fight and Lose

_**A/N Ok…Chapter 22. Man, my writing sucks so badly in this story. If you read my Naruto fic, you'd probably never know that I wrote this story because the writing style is so different…**_

* * *

**Chapter 22: Fight and Lose**

Naraku heard the loose door knob of the door to this thirteenth floor rattle, and he gave a true smile that could only belong to the devil. Like the Satan before him, he made a few extra bones grow out of his skin, and extra body parts pop out all over himself.

A few more preparations had to be made before he could officially welcome his guests, though. Thus, he shot a bit of blue energy towards the door, lightly locking the door with blue chains. Then, he lay the almost lifeless body of Ayame across the chair that he'd sat in, and positioned it right in front of the door.

"Darn, he locked it!" a muffled voice sounded from the other side.

"Lemme break it down with my boomerang!"

_Almost done…Hold up a bit…_Naraku inwardly smiled as he drew a five-star pentacle with a pink energy from his finger, and placed his step-daughter inside. Pink bonds wrapped around her wrists. With another incantation, Naraku picked up the entire pentacle and hung it from the ceiling right above Ayame.

At that point in time, the door really did break down. Once the dust settled down, Naraku could see the entire gang in their "fighting" poses. He was slightly disappointed to see that none of them even blinked an eye at his gruesome body. Inuyasha rasped, "Give us back our friends and the Shikon, and no one gets hurt."

Naraku started laughing so hard that he thought he would die. Blinking through tears of laughter, he chortled with gasps, "Oh –cough– m-man! –cough– That was so lame! Is this how all humans are? –cough–"

It took all of Inuyasha's willpower not to go right over and sock the devil in the face. He did, however, notice Kagome and Ayame. Their bodies seemed so lifeless…

"You…you killed them, didn't you!!??" Inuyasha screamed, lunging forward to hurt the man. Thankfully, he had Sesshomaru and Koga to hold him back.

"Hey, Inuyasha," Sesshomaru sternly said, holding back his half-brother. "Remember what you said before we came in here…"

Naraku said, "I'm experiencing a little of a deja-voo here…didn't we have one of you guys struggle against me before I made this 'maze'?"

Rin slowly started to say a few words, this time remembering to pick her words wisely. She probably wouldn't be lucky a second time if her voice got taken away again, "Get to the point…what do you need from us?"

"Smarter now, aren't you? At least you aren't so cheeky anymore," Naraku sneered at the girl. He raised the Shikon Jewel, still attached to its chain. The teens gasped—most of it had turned a dark purple color instead of the bright pink. There was still one spot that hadn't turned purple, and that was the part where it was attached to the chain.

"As you fools can see, the Shikon has been already been largely converted to my purposes," Naraku explained, swinging the necklace around. "I've already dominated the Shinto gods and goddesses. And now, I just need the world to add to my collection."

"You're such a gree—mph!" Sango snarled, but was cut off by Miroku.

In a falsetto high voice, Naraku squeaked, "Oh dear, you children are growing up! Everything is just going vice versa here! Now this monk boy can stop others and control himself!"

Taking another deep breath, he breathed out, "Look, girl. I know a lot about you thanks to the tattoo I put on Monk-boy's hand. I've been watching you guys this entire time, thanks to that. So just shut up. Anyways, I don't care about the stupid world or anything else. I don't even need or want to rule the gods. They were just hindrances that I had to take care of…"

"Wait! So what were Kikyo, Kanna, and Kagura to you?" Koga harshly asked, his eyes narrowing. "They gave us a heck of a time in school and they were your subordinates, but surely you've got to care about them too, right?"

The devil gave a laugh that bounced off all the walls, creating a din to the ears. He smirked, "My, you guys humor me so much! They owe me their lives, those three. I found them shivering outside my house in the snow fifteen years ago. They didn't remember how they'd gotten to my house…they just did."

Sesshomaru's eyes widened, and he said, "That doesn't make sense…they'd be thirty years old by now, right?"

Naraku shrugged. "You got me there. I don't know how, but those girls just don't age."

He caught the rest of the group slowly giving more glances towards the bodies of their friends. In a clear and mean voice, he said, "Now, kids…don't get too distracted. I'll tell you now that I only need one of your lives to complete what I need to complete. I'm bringing my sister back to life today. So, I need a healthy sacrifice to go with that wench hanging up there—the Shikon can only be fully converted to dark purple when another's life a miko's life are combined."

"Wai—wha?" Sango gaped, her jaw hanging open. "You want to bring your sister back to life?! Impossible!"

"Just shut up already, and hand over one of you lot!" Naraku yelled, his eyes turning to a flame. "Preferably one of the boys, OK? They're canine youkais, and I'm going to get revenge for my sister's wolf-youkai husband who killed her! A human girl married a damn youkai!"

Naraku's rage unintentionally made a few more body parts spring up. He was breathing extremely hard. A very eerie silence fell over the room; the only sounds were Naraku's panting and the hums of energy coming from the pentacle Kagome was trapped in.

"Koga…" Sesshomaru whispered almost inaudibly. "How many human women have married youkais in the past fifteen years?"

"Like hell I'll know! But it's probably not a very large number. I'm a youkai, not a hanyou!" Koga whispered caustically back. "Why do you care?"

Sesshomaru stood back and shrugged. He said, "Never mind. Some creepy thought just crossed me."

"COME ON! I NEED A—"

"I'll go."

Everybody turned to the sound of the voice, which came from Inuyasha. The currently human hanyou stoically repeated, "I'll go."

Sango slapped Inuyasha very hard. She hissed, "Are you crazy? You're supporting this idiot's motives! You really think he'll let us all go after you just freely give your life? He'll kill all of us once he brings his insane sister back to life!"

Inuyasha looked away and ignored her. He stared down Naraku with eyes of anger and determination. He slowly said, "Fine. I'll be the sacrifice for your sister, whoever she was, if you've really got to be happy. But we'll just need to know the entire story first, OK?"

Naraku narrowed his eyes, and started, "I'm only going to make this a brief summary because the story is too long. My younger sister was the prettiest human girl you could imagine and the kindest as well. But she ran off to marry a monoke-youkai…"

"But…But…" Naraku began shaking with rage, "She was killed by him! I'm sure of it! He had a stupid sword that could supposedly bring her back to life if she got killed, but he didn't bring her back to life the second time! He killed her…"

Sesshomaru's eyes widened. He harshly said, "Is that sword—"

"It's name…was Tessaiga…" Naraku whispered, glaring at Sesshomaru. "Why couldn't it bring her back to life again!? She died the first time in a car accident…the second time from a sickness…Ten years ago! And after she died, he died as well. BUT WHY DIDN'T HE BRING HER BACK TO LIFE!! THAT'S WHY I HATE YOUKAIS!"

His breathing became extremely shallow. Sesshomaru took a large gulp, and looked towards Inuyasha, who was also looking back at him.

"D-Dad d-died quite a long time ago…didn't he, Inuyasha?" Sesshomaru quivered, shivering.

Inuyasha nodded, and then said back, "My m-mom d-died from pneumonia…ten years ago…"

Sesshomaru slowly took a deep breath, and said timidly, "Naraku. The Tessaiga only brought your sister back to life once? With it, I can repeatedly bring things back to life that have been killed more than once, which is an odd thing in contrast to your statement."

"Like I care," Naraku sniffed, eyes narrowing. "I just want my sister back. And it can only be done with the help of the Shikon and a few sacrifices. So you, hanyou. Get your butt over here."

Sango and Rin each involuntarily gripped both of Inuyasha's arms, but he shook them off. The hanyou's face was dark, and he looked at the floor. Then, he venomously asked, "Was your sister's name…Izayoi? Izayoi…was my mother…"

Time almost stopped right there. Inuyasha rarely ever discussed his mother, but what was more heart-stopping was that Naraku's eyes began to lose a little bit of the evil-edge for a few moments. But it regained the evil composure as Naraku began to stare down at Inuyasha.

"_Omae_…" Naraku growled, "You are the son of my sister and that dirty youkai? You, Taiyoukai Inuyasha, the son of my sister, Izayoi!?"

Several things happened at once in the next few moments. First, Naraku lost complete control of himself. He howled at the ceiling, and his voice reverberated around the room. His fists were clenched with arms bent, and the devil began to scream again and again. Then, he began to throw energy all around the room violently. The teens could do nothing but attempt to hide behind Sango's boomerang, which wasn't doing much good at all.

Rin was hit in the stomach by yellow light, and passed out. In a rage of tears, Sesshomaru picked her up and wrapped her in his tail, all the while cursing Naraku.

Inuyasha and Koga ran over to protect Ayame and Kagome. Somehow, the hanyou and dodged all the lights and had also yanked the Shikon away from Naraku's chest. The two companions reached Ayame and Kagome. Koga had no problem retrieving Ayame when he just scooped her off the couch and ran back to the group.

Inuyasha, though, wasn't so lucky.

Once he'd yanked the Shikon away from Naraku, Naraku instantly noticed a diminish in the power he had. Although Inuyasha could run so much faster because of the Shikon, Naraku still had pretty good aim of directing power. The latter formed a large ball of white-hot energy that burned with intense light, and released it towards Inuyasha's direction.

If time had stopped, so had sound waves. Inuyasha couldn't hear anymore screaming from anyone. His target was only Kagome, who was hanging from the pentacle. But he could feel heat coming from behind, and he turned to see what it was. In slow motion, he saw the ball of energy flying towards him, Sango throwing her boomerang to stop it, Miroku yelling and making hand motions…

That ball of energy…he had to protect Kagome from it…

With a large burst of adrenaline, he leaped up to the pentacle. He clung on to the pentacle, and in mid-air, he turned around to face the energy. He saw everyone screaming, but he couldn't hear them. He saw Naraku laughing on his knees, but he couldn't hear him either.

But he could feel. And what he felt was the white-hot burning thing burrowing into his chest.

Everything seemed to come back to reality then. Inuyasha could now hear his teammates' gasps, Naraku wheezing, and his own panting of pain. He could feel how hard he was gripping the pentacle where Kagome was. He coughed a guttural cough, and spat out large drops of blood.

"I-Inuyasha…" a voice softly said near him. Inuyasha looked up to see Kagome crying. She continued, "I just woke up…and you're about to die…? Why did you protect me like this?"

"For the Shikon…for our friends…for you…" the hanyou coughed, holding up the almost purple Shikon Jewel. Now, he could only hang on to the pentacle with one hand.

With the last of his strength, he whispered, "I love you…Kagome…"

And Inuyasha fell from the pentacle, hurtling towards the ground, which gladly met his body with a sickening "Thud!" The Shikon fell from his hand, and cracked into many pieces along side him.

"IIIINNNNUUUYYYYAAAASSSHHHHHAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!" Kagome screamed, her voice now the only thing that could be heard.

Tears began to flow freely from her eyes, and dropped down below like dripping rain on her dead lover's still body. A few dripped on the cracked pieces of the Jewel…

And when those tears dripped on the Jewel, an ethereal white shape burst out from the shards.

* * *

_**A/N End of Chapter 22. I think there are two more chapters…? Dunno. I'm typing all of this up in one sitting.**_


	23. The Miko Lives Again

_**A/N Penultimate chapter…**_

* * *

**Chapter 23: The Miko Lives Again**

"Oh, ho!" Naraku gleefully yelled, gazing at the white shape forming from the combination of shards and Kagome's tears. "The sacrifice must be complete! Now I—"

"Naraku," a sharp woman's voice boomed out over the entire area.

Kagome gasped. This…this voice…she hadn't heard it for so long…

Her suspicion was confirmed when the ethereal shape blossomed and took form of two women. One of them was a woman Kagome thought she'd never see again: her mother.

"Mom!" Kagome yelled out to the form. "Mom! Please, help us all! Save Inuyasha! Please, Mom! Please!"

With a swipe of her hand across the entire room, Midoriko Higurashi released Kagome from the pentacle, and repaired all the broken items. In an instant, Kagome ran over to Inuyasha to take his pulse.

Just barely there. The pulse was just fluttering.

"Naraku," Midoriko repeated, her eyes boring down at Naraku, "You've committed many crimes in the past already. Give it up."

"Where is she?" Naraku snarled, in disbelief this entire time. "Where is Izayoi!?"

The gang looked confused at Naraku, as if he were mad. Miroku said, "If you're saying it's that one pretty hot lady that's standing next to Higurashi-san, yea, that's Izayoi…"

"I CAN'T SEE HER! IZAYOI! _Anata wa doko?!_"

Kagome felt a light, cold brush against her skin as the other woman, presumably Izayoi, stepped over. Izayoi's ghost kneeled down next to Inuyasha, slightly crying. She then looked over at Sesshomaru, and saw Rin bundled up within his tail. With an unhappy face, she walked straight over to Naraku and said in his face, "Naraku-niisan, did you do this to everyone? What happened to you? You have extra body parts all over you…"

Naraku frantically looked everywhere, even though the ghost of his younger sister was right in front of him. "Izayoi…I hear you…where are you!?"

Midoriko cleared her throat, and Naraku looked up at her. The dead woman said, "Let me explain why you can't see Izayoi, but everyone else can. But first, I'm going to revive Rin, Inuyasha, and Ayame over here…"

With another wave of her hand, golden sparks flew and engulfed the three. Both of the slowly woke up. When Inuyasha caught sight of his mother, he yelled, "Mom!" He attempted to hug her, but passed straight through. Kagome held on to him to make him still.

Midoriko explained, "Technically, it is physically impossible for anyone to contact the ghosts of others. But this is a very, very special situation. A very long time ago, entrusted the Shikon Jewel to Kagome and told her to protect it as she would protect family. This is because as mikos pass away and the Jewel is passed on, the miko's direct family members' souls are stored away within it."

"So how did my mother end up within it!?" Inuyasha cut in, his eyes frantic.

"I'll explain…my, you're hasty aren't you?" Midoriko winked. "If the Shikon Jewel is broken, the souls will all leave, and the Jewel is of no use at all. With power, you must have family support; thus, the family's souls within the Jewel. It is a huge responsibility to keep the Jewel safe. Also, if it is stolen, like from our good friend Naraku here…"

The miko glared at Naraku, who was still looking around the room for Izayoi. Midoriko continued, "…the miko maintaining the Jewel will have to try all ways to get it back. Otherwise, the Jewel is converted for evil purposes."

"But the Jewel broke!" Kagome shouted, "How did you come out!?"

"Ok…Ok…slow down!" Midoriko waved her hands. "First off, Naraku was right in a sense that he needed a sacrifice to completely convert the Shikon Jewel. But the thing is, it was a coincidence that Inuyasha volunteered to be the 'sacrifice' because in order to completely convert the Shikon Jewel, you need the closest person to the miko to be the sacrifice. And right in the process of sacrifice, if the Jewel breaks, it is supposed to explode as a last resort to kill everyone near it and hide away all its secrets. But, if a miko's tears of sadness over a sacrifice lands on the broken Jewel within five minutes of its breaking, family members' souls come out to help."

Sango's eyes were widened, and she said, "How rare are those possibilities? That just happened!"

Izayoi spoke, "Well…ancient textbooks have calculated that this is a possibility that only happens once in four billion times if there were four billion Jewels to break…"

"And now…explaining why Naraku can't see Izayoi…" Midoriko continued, "The cycle to attempt to bring back Izayoi was broken, and family members only reside within the Jewel. But because I was the last miko to handle the Jewel before Kagome, I technically have a very high position within the Shinto Gods—I can choose to have any dead soul over for company as a guest for a small period of time. Thus, when the Jewel was broken and Kagome's tears landed on them, I chose to have Izayoi visit. But, only pure hearts can see Izayoi. Naraku, your heart is not pure."

Naraku howled once again. Izayoi begged, "Please…Midoriko…can you please somehow make an exception and let him see me for a little while….just a little while!"

"I can't do that," Midoriko explained, "Because when it comes to pure hearts, it comes to truly purifying the heart yourself. I don't know anything else that can—"

"Wait!" Rin weakly called out. "I could try. It's true that purifying hearts is a matter of one's will in the end, but I'll try and influence his choices!"

"Rin, you're too weak…" Ayame slowly said, her eyebrows in an uncertain manner. "You might collapse again…"

Koga shushed, "You might collapse again as well!"

"No, I won't!" Rin defiantly stated, wrestling herself out of Sesshomaru's arms. She turned towards Kagome and said, "OK, fat chance this would happen, but do you happen to have anything sharp on you to be like the Purifying Arrows in your miko class?"

Kagome shook her head. Rin sighed, and said, "Well, I'll just use up a little more energy if I convert my hair to something sharp…"

Rin plucked a few strands of hair, and sang a few songs; they turned into a bow and an arrow. She told Midoriko, "Please, if you would somehow hold down Naraku to keep him from dodging this arrow. I don't have enough energy to make anymore of these, and you can't just make any of these because its only through my own energy that this entire process will work."

Midoriko silently conjured a few ghostly white ropes that bound Naraku and gagged him. Rin shakily raised the single arrow to the bow, and with a quivering voice, sang a song whose words wound around the arrow. With precise aim, she shot it towards Naraku's heart.

The arrow seemed ghostly—it passed right through Naraku's heart without hurting him, but mental pain seemed to be taking place within him. As Rin collapsed to her knees, Naraku's eyes rolled upwards in pain.

Inuyasha asked, "What the heck did you do? Kill him?"

Rin panted, "No…I just sent a Memory Spell through him. He'll remember all the things he's done in the past with your mother as children, teenagers, and everything. Hopefully, that'll influence him to purify himself and turn good so that he'll be able to actually see the ghost of Izayoi…"

She fainted from exhaustion. Midoriko said, "She's strong, for such a little girl. But if I revive her too much, she'll depend on it too much…rest is all that she can get."

Naraku began to shudder all over, but he wasn't screaming for once. Suddenly, he stopped, and slumped over. Midoriko released the grip of the ropes on him just a little bit. Agonizing moments of time and waiting passed as everyone waited for Naraku to waken.

Naraku woke up with the evil glint still in his eye. Midoriko removed the gag from his mouth, and he yelled, "I still can't see her! Where is she!?"

Izayoi gave a small sob, and whispered, "He didn't change at all…I wish he could be the smiling brother he once was!"

Midoriko sadly shook her head, and said, "I'm sorry, Izayoi…some people will just never change. Now, we also have some unfinished business to take care of."

She turned to Inuyasha, and said, "Your uncle, Naraku, cause you guys a load of grief. I'm sorry for that. Kikyo (Inuyasha flinced) cause you guys trouble as well. She had Kanna and Kagura, the two Wind Cousins, as her only companions when she worked in a shrine from the Feudal Time Era."

Inuyasha's eyebrows shot up, and he said, "Kikyo…is…a thousand years old??"

Izayoi kindly said, "In essence, yes. In body and mind, no. The time current went awry some time ago, and the landed in our era. You had dated a girl who was manipulated cruelly by your uncle…you must forgive her…"

Midoriko turned to everyone and said, "I suggest that you all check into a hospital for checkups. I'm going to go collect Kikyo, Kanna, and Kagura…and oh! I forgot!"

She waved her arms, and a white youkai-cat popped into her arms, meowing pitifully.

"Kirara!" Sango frantically screamed, running to collect her pet. "Where'd you find her!?"

"The three girls had no where else to put Kirara, so, using a little bit of Naraku's powers, they popped her in another time current as a storage space, hoping to use Kirara later. But Kirara suppressed the evil spell they'd put on her, and she's been in the time current waiting for someone to rescue her…" Midoriko explained, "Izayoi, we have to leave now. Naraku will have to be left to the Head God to be decided on what will happen. Satan will probably have to come back from retirement again…"

Sesshomaru asked, "Wait! One more question. Why did my father's Tessaiga only work twice, while I can use it many times?"

Midoriko breathed, "I've been talking so much today that it isn't even funny…anyways, when your father died from natural causes of sickness, he spent the rest of his energy to convert his soul into an energy that the sword could use. To make it short, your father's soul is the reason why you, Sesshomaru, are able to bring random dead bugs to life over and over again."

Sesshomaru sweatdropped at that last statement, but then asked again, "Why did Naraku say that my father killed Izayoi."

"Naraku went crazy after Izayoi died…" Midoriko sadly shook her head. "It was just as simple as that. Besides, Izayoi's family wasn't too hot on her marriage anyways. The pressure must have been too much for Naraku to understand the real idea."

Before leaving, Izayoi turned to her son, and said, "You've grown, Inuyasha…you look just like me when you're in your human form, but you look just like your father when it's not the full moon…I love you…"

Inuyasha only mutely nodded, looking down at the floor. Izayoi brushed her cold, ghostly lips against his cheek, and stood where Midoriko was. Midoriko said, "When we leave, this entire place will disappear. Because you slipped back into the time stream when Kagome was taken at the time-machine room, you'll all appear back there at the time you'd left. Get checked in the hospital immediately. Ayame and Rin don't look so good at all."

Their forms began to disappear, and so did Naraku's. Everyone softly said, "_Arigato_…"

The last words the Midoriko called out were, "And you guys wondered who made the rooms? I did. I felt that I needed to find the right teenagers who could find the right rooms and tricks when I founded this school…"

With that, everything fell black and disappeared.

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_**A/N Yea, yea, lame ending to this chapter, OK? I know.**_


	24. Not a True End

_**A/N Last chapter!**_

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**Chapter 24: Not a True End**

"Sesshomaru!" Rin called out, climbing onto his shoulders and snuggling into his tail for warmth. "How'd you think you did on that English final!?"

"Definitely better than you!" he teased back. "And I—"

SMACK!

He was interrupted by a large slapping sound issuing behind him. Miroku once again walked away dazed, with Sango yelling, "I sincerely thought you changed from our ordeal from a month and a half ago! You should be thanking me! Who was the one that comforted and assured you that the tattoo on your hand would go away!? I did! Who was the one that—"

THWACK! POP!

Sango was hit in the back of the head with an extremely large snowball thrown by Koga and Ayame together. Ayame finally regained the healthy blush that always covered her cheeks when she was happy. When she was told that she had been kicked by Naraku, she said that when she died, she was going to pay him back by kicking his ass double hard.

It was the last day before Christmas vacation in Shikon Boarding School. The teens only explained that they'd gotten "pranked" badly on Halloween Day to the nurse, and she didn't ask twice. Thankfully, they didn't miss any school because the entire next week was used up to search for Kikyo, Kanna, Kagura, and the mysterious "Ukaran-sensei" in math class. The recovery time was enough.

Also, Miroku's step-father, Mr. Bonze, said that he would drive them all back to their house, where they would spend the holidays together as one large family. He'd made arrangements with Eri's parents, and Souta and Eri, apparently, would also be staying with them. School hours had already ended with the English final, but since Mr. Bonze had another business meeting, he wouldn't be coming for another hour.

Inuyasha and Kagome walked hand in hand throughout the quad where they'd shared their very first kiss. Kagome was fingering the once-again pink Shikon Jewel that dangled from a chain on her chest. It was strange, because once Midoriko and Izayoi had left, the jewel was whole and pink again. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's swords were also found whole as well. Miroku commented that the Jewel finally had a good aura around it.

Kagome shyly smiled, "Inuyasha…wasn't one of your goals to be a full demon?"

Inuyasha blushed, and said, "I kind of like it as a hanyou…my mother was right, I suppose. I still want to be a living memory of both my mother and father."

They sat down on the bench were they'd shared their first kiss. Inuyasha looked up at the sky where large snowflakes drifted down peacefully onto their faces. Kagome said, "Your hair is just like the color of that snow now…my hanyou-sweetheart…"

"Just like the father whom I wished I could've lived with a little longer…"

Kagome turned to Inuyasha and grinned, "You know, they'll always live in our hearts, our parents…even without the Shikon Jewel. And I like the way you are, so don't change. Because somebody who we love will always stay with us forever…"

"Heh. Like you, wench?" Inuyasha smirked, tickling Kagome, who playfully slapped his hands. He stared back up towards the sky, and then said, "Look up."

"It's a trick right? Anyways, there's only snowflakes in the sky."

"No, look up, seriously."

Kagome looked up to see a bundle of mistletoe hanging right over them, growing naturally from the tree. She sly said, "We've gotta kiss, right?"

Without further hesitation, Inuyasha and Kagome embraced each other in a passionate kiss. Suddenly, Sesshomaru popped right out of the snow from under them, snapping furious pictures with his camera. The couple broke right apart, screaming and falling over.

"WE GOT YA!" Sango yelled, pumping a triumphant fist. Kirara mewed in happiness on her shoulder. "Woot! Check this school newspaper out too!"

She thrust a copy of the "Shikon Shard Times" in front of the two. To their embarrassment, the front page cover was their picture of when they first kissed.

Kagome read out, "Photo courtesy of Sesshomaru Taiyoukai…"

A ball of purple energy began to form in her hand, and she clenched her fist in anger. She snarled, "Ses. Sho. Ma. Ru. You. Are. So. Dead."

In a flurry of snow, Kagome shot after a yelling Sesshomaru who was screaming "crazy bitch-ass mikos." Inuyasha, Miroku, and Koga chuckled at their antics, and turned the page…only to see a huge picture of them drooling all over each other in Mr. Bonze's car.

"WHHHAAATTT!!?????" Inuyasha screamed, jumping up. He dashed after Kagome and Sesshomaru. He called over his shoulder, "Miroku! Koga! You guys go find the editor and kill him!"

Rin sighed, and said, "It's no use. The editor is Sesshomaru."

Sango's eye twitched. "Wait…I didn't notice that…he never told us…Oh man! That means…"

Sango flipped through the pages of the newspaper and saw another huge picture of her kissing Miroku at the mall. She was silent in shock at first, but then, she tersely said, "Miroku…unfortunately, the honor that Inuyasha had of getting hit with my Hiraikotsu is also going to Sesshomaru. See you all later. SESSHOMARUUUUU!!!!!!"

Rin, Miroku, and Koga just laughed and followed the fighting friends into a snowy wind.

Christmas Break was here.

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They went through hard times, these eight. First as enemies who just bumped into each other, and then as comrades who stuck with each other through thick and thin. They didn't require a Jewel has precious as the Shikon to keep them together.

Because, like they all knew deep within their hearts, a friend is a friend forever made, and they wouldn't be breaking apart anytime soon. This was an end to the first semester, but time would never put an end to their friendship.

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_**A/N All done. Complete. Done. After sooooo long. Boy, I think I really did mess this story up immensely. I did, however, believe that it had its merits in a way. But I'm not going to take the time to explain. By the way, I don't agree with the last paragraph of my story myself. I just thought it sounded cool to add for this story because it only applies in a story and not reality.**_

_**Although towards the end, I didn't receive any thoughts on how this story went, I really do have to thank you all. This was the very first Fanfic I ever wrote, and it was through all of your guys' reviews that I felt confident enough to remain on this site. Thank you very much.**_

_**Sine Cera, Yumizuki**_


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